When I was in third grade, my teacher told my classmates and me to go to the library to pick out a book to read for our 20-minute quiet time. I was taking an unusually long time to pick out a book because I was looking for the most decked out cover I could find. After spending a solid five minutes at the library, compared to my classmates’ casual two, my teacher came over and asked me what was taking me so long. I told her that all the books in the library looked boring and she told me to never judge a book by its cover.

        “Never judge a book by its cover,” is a cliché, but the meaning behind it is very powerful, especially in light of the society that we are growing up in today. People, especially girls, judge nearly every person that walks by, sometimes without even realizing it. How many times have you judged a girl just because her skirt was longer than yours? Did you ever stop to think that maybe she wore her skirt that way because that’s the way she felt most comfortable, or did you automatically think that she was a loser? We judge people based on their outside appearance without knowing who they really are.

When we begin to judge people, all we are doing is feeding into the corrupt and unjust world of the media. We are homogenizing how we must look, dress, and act. We are basically saying that the way we live our lives as individuals should be the same way that the rest of the people in the world should live theirs.

We miss opportunities to make new friends because of our unwillingness to talk to someone who is a little different. Being different is okay, and that is one of the beauties of living in such a diverse world. Judging someone on what we see on the outside will only hinder us from seeing what she is really like on the inside.
That day in third grade was the first time that I ever read a Junie B. Jones book by Barbara Park, one of my favorite childhood series of all time. Even though the cover was less than thrilling for me, the pages between the covers were what truly mattered. I did not get the most decorated cover, but I did get something that will stick with me for a lifetime. So before snap judging someone, get to know her story instead. Otherwise you could be missing your Junie B. Jones.
 
 –  Jessica Johnson, Staff Writer