“Beauty is pain”, but should being beautiful really be painful? Every teenage girl wants to be called beautiful and all of them try to be different in their own way. Recently, a lot of teenage girls have turned to facial piercings to distinguish themselves from the rest.

Lately, it seems that the most popular thing for young girls to do is to pierce their ears, nose or even their eyebrows. The motive behind this is different for everyone and affects everyone differently. According to Northwestern University, 19 percent of all piercings women get are nose piercings.

“I don’t really know why I wanted it pierced just for kicks and fun new thing. I like the way it looked on other people and I said hey why not get one on me,” said sophomore Eve Thompson.

“I personally got my piercing because it felt like it was a good addition to my face. People, especially teenagers, are striving for something that will make them an individual and I think that a facial piercing is a way to become individualized,” said senior Emily Johnson.

The “unprofessional” controversy hasn’t affected the girls as much as one would think. A lot of mothers argue that employers and teachers will not take them seriously if they have piercings on their face, most girls would say otherwise.

“I had a nose ring when I got hired at my current job. It didn’t seem to phase them,” said junior Lauren Traiser.

The teachers at Stillwater Area High School are supportive of every student and want to help them become the best person they can be.

“I do not feel that teachers treat me differently. As long as you do your work they will respect you. They are pretty good at not judging people,” said Johnson.

“I don’t think that the teachers really care that much about my nose ring and I don’t think anyone at my work even noticed until like a month after I started working there and they don’t seem to think any differently about it,” said junior Emily Allen.

According to USA Today an article by Susan Davis-Ali, “If your dream job is computer programming at Google, your body art may be a non-issue. However, if you’re hoping to land a sales position at IBM, your body art may end your career before it even begins.”

The most common questions a nose piercing brings are, “did it hurt?”, “does it get in your way?”, “Can you still breathe?” It truly is a matter of personal opinion. But, according to Johnson, “It hurt the moment it broke skin during the piercing but it hasn’t hurt since and it doesn’t affect my breathing at all!”