My friends tease me for being emo!

Dear Advice Girl,

My friends keep calling me emo. I know I should be used to it because I did cut myself, like, once. But that was a while ago and now I'm sick of the name-calling.

I don’t want to make my friends hate me if I freak out on them. My mom says that if they’re nice, they'll stop, but I'm worried that I'll lose them as friends. What do I do?

Signed,
   Little Bit Emo

Dear Little Bit Emo,

If you don’t say anything, then your friends will have no idea that they’re even bugging you. So speak up. Not in a screamy way, though! Be mature about it. Tell them that all that cutting stuff is (thankfully) in the past, and you’d appreciate if they helped you keep it there.

Your mom’s right – if they’re nice, they’ll quit teasing you. If they’re jerks, then they’ll keep being jerks, and you shouldn’t be friends with them anyway.

(This is all assuming that your emo rep comes from the cutting incident. If you’re rocking a white belt and emo hair every day, then admit that your pals have a point and try to be a good sport about it.)