GOLDEN Square Secondary College Year 10 student Louise Hallawell stands out in the crowd. She is goth and proud of it. While on work experience with the Bendigo Weekly, Louise put pen to paper to give us her view of the world...
When I first decided I wanted drawn-on eyebrows I stayed up the whole night trying to make sure I could put them on straight.
I spent most of the next morning trying to hide them from mum, but she knew there was something up.
When I finally told her, she said: “Make sure you rub them off before work.”
When I told her I shaved off my real eyebrows, she cracked it and told me I looked like a clown.
It was not the first time I was told I look like a clown.
I dress, think and act a little differently than what you might call ‘the norm’, but that is because I have chosen to be goth.
My life revolves around music, fashion, writing and family and friends.
I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t have them.
My music is my escape from reality and it is everything to me.
I hate the new type of pop/rock music, it ruins all good music.
Music used to be about the meaning of the song and the lyrics, not how hot the singer is or if it’s good to dance to or not.
That’s why I stick with the music I have being listening to for years, such as Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, TOOL, The Cure, Iron Maiden, Rammstien, KMFDM, Led Zeppelin, Korn, Nirvana and, wait for it... Simon and Garfunkel.
My fashion is quite different to others.
My everyday clothing includes a range of boots, tattered skirts, leggings/fish nets, band shirts, corsets and long black jackets.
My hair is black and I love to wear it in different styles however, it is makeup that defines me from others.
My drawn-on eyebrows come in many colours, my eyes are black as night with flicks at the end, and on occasions I wear bright red eyeshadow above them.
I wear bright-blue mascara on my eyelashes and porcelain white foundation.
I have eight piercings, two in my left ear, five in my right and a ring through my nose.
Being goth isn’t just about wearing black. It’s about our fashion, make-up, taste in music and movies and thoughts on everyday issues. It is who we are.
A lot of the time we cop abuse for dressing the way we do.
Don’t you think that’s a bit unfair, being abused for living our life the way we want to?  The most common type of bullying is because people look different, act differently and have different lifestyles.
Like all bullying, people think they are superior and don’t understand  people who have the guts to stand out from the group, have their own opinion and live their own life, preferring not to be a sheep their whole life.
When I first became goth, school was hard for me.
I had changed so people had decided that I should be bullied for this.
As we all got older, I was accepted, and school became fun and interesting again.
For some this never happens and school is just like a horror movie playing over and over again.
Not everyone learns to grow up and accept people for being who they are and who they want to be.
Every now and again I will be walking down the street minding my own business and abuse will be screamed at me.
Most of the time I have never even met or seen
this person before, but they just think it’s all fun and games.
You get used to this.
My family warmed quickly to the idea of me being goth. At the start, I would get the odd smart comment from one of my brothers, especially about my eyebrows.
It’s good to have a supportive family behind you, because if you don’t, when things go bad you only have yourself to rely on, so I am grateful to have the family I do.
People think if you are goth, punk or emo, you are only friends with people like you, but that’s not true.
I have many ‘kinds’ of friends and my group at school is a mix of everybody.
We have bikers, skaters, the outcasts, nerds, goths, emos, Barbies, metal heads, and of course your everyday ‘normal’ people, well as normal
as you can get in the 21st century.
The thing is, we are all the same.
The only difference is our apperance and our interests, and it will always be like that.
There are always going to be those who stand out and freely voice their opinion, and there are always going to be the ones who bully those for not being part of the group, but that is how life is and always will be.