Revisit the young lady from April 17th. She has a secret that none of her friends know about. What is it? Why doesn't she tell them? Make a list of possibilities.

Established:
She likes classical music.
She's smarter than they are.

Other possibilities:
Her friends bore her.
Her parents are terrorists.
She would love to live in the country.
She's in love with a nerd.
That she dances. She doesn't want to be pressured to join the pep squad or something in which she'd be asked to dance for any other reason than her love of it.
She takes lessons to be a pilot.
Her family lives in the wrong part of town (hard to hide!)
Her mother is schizophrenic.
Her father deserted the army.
She was found on church steps; her parents are not her biological parents. She's afraid if people found out she was "riding her parents' coattails" into society they'd shun her.
She loves purple, but that color is "out" now.
She'd rather live in the country and ride a horse Western style, than live in the city and trot a jumper.
She hates most of what she does to be accepted by the community. (She's not admitted this to herself yet, though)
Her teeth are false.
She has a heart defect.

I have a hard time with the terrible, terrible things we know could have happened to this girl. Like rape or incest or molestation. Bullying, extortion, blackmail....of all sorts and types could be going on while she is locked in a fear that keeps her silent and feeds her need to be accepted by her peers because she doesn't accept herself. Or she thinks she's less than everyone else but doesn't want to feel that way.

Then there are all those things that are important to teens that aren't really that important. They just seem huge at that age. She doesn't have a boyfriend, but even worse doesn't really want one. Or she has a boyfriend who is "right" socially but she is afraid of his temper. Or she has the boyfriend and really cares for him but he's abusing her.

She makes her own clothes. They are slick and stylish and show great talent, but they don't have the right "labels" so she cuts those labels out of clothes she doesn't wear and stitches them into the clothes she designs and then tells everyone that her parents know the designer and s/he gives them things she's made but doesn't like enough to sell to the public. I like this one. It's a bit different.

Because she doesn't like to dance in public she doesn't want to go to the prom.

That she wishes someone would hug her and tell her stories that would make her laugh and would take care of her instead of leaving her to fend for herself most of the time.

It's hard sometimes to know what else is going on in the average teen's life out there. My kids are home schooled and don't feel the pressure of wearing the "right" thing or dating too young or for recreation. Their peers are important but not the be-all and end-all of important opinions. There are at least three other opinions that weigh in before peer pressure (thank goodness). My teen is worrying about raising money to go to Europe and finishing his geometry course on time.