Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje Quotes

My school was pretty tough, and I played football there so I would be accepted, to save myself a kicking.

When I was young, running with a gang was a cool thing to do; that's how you get popular; that's how you get the girls.

People just don't realize how much peer pressure, the desire for peer acclamation, influences them.

I was bullied every day at school because I carried a briefcase. I could have left it at home. But I thought it looked great! I didn't understand why anyone else didn't think so.

From 13/14 I was always hanging about with older boys. Boys in school used to call me names. But outside older boys would pay me attention because I looked older for my age. I was going to clubs from 14. I wanted to be loved.

In junior high, I really wanted to be popular. Suddenly there were parties with boys, and I wanted to be part of that. There was a group of girls, and I wanted to be friends with them.

Like most people, I have painful memories of trying to fit in as a child. I wore, said, and did pretty much what everyone else did.

I can't say that I ever abided nerd stereotypes: I was never alone or felt outcast.

Kids get influenced by other kids.

Kids aren't born to be bullies, they're taught to be bullies.

I think a lot of young kids at school are very conscious of trying to keep credibility in case they kind of stand out in a crowd and get bullied by trying to stay cool and stuff. And my whole thing, all the way through school, was I was just a goof... I didn't care.

When I was a kid it was like, who could be the coolest? Who could do the stupidest thing? And you knew it was a stupid thing to do, but you would do it just so you could be the coolest guy. And then you end up doing really cruel crap.

Even when I was at school, I wanted to be liked by everyone, even the bullies. I didn't like them, but I needed to know that they liked me.

But I was also a brat. I used to belong to a gang that went looking for fights with other gangs.

Kids can make fun of you for having the wrong shoelaces: that's just kids. But I don't think I had any trouble making friends.

I think everyone in their life has some point on their life wanted to be like everybody else or wanted to be like the captain of the football team.

Sometimes kids used to give me a hard time. But they're on my side.

Socially I never was an outsider. I have never thought of the conflict element before frankly, but perhaps it was wanting to belong, and at the same time wanting to retain one's own personality.

When I was a little girl at school, I really wanted to be Katie or Sarah or Sophie. When you're a little girl at school, you want to be like the other little girls.

Peer pressure is just that: pressure.

I just felt being part of my peer group so strongly. I was immersed in teen culture, but not taken in by it.

Growing up, I was a target. Speaking the right way, standing the right way, holding your wrist the right way. Every day was a test, and there were a thousand ways to fail, a thousand ways to betray yourself, to not live up to someone else's standards of what was accepted, of what was normal.

When I entered high school I was an A-student, but not for long. I wanted the fancy clothes. I wanted to hang out with the guys. I went from being an A-student to a B-student to a C-student, but I didn't care. I was getting the high fives and the low fives and the pats on the back. I was cool.

Kids all want to look cool, as if knowledge is a great burden, but they're always looking around. They remember.

If you start out saying you want to be cool, you won't be cool.