I like pink. Always have, and surely always will. Pink is the color of the header on this page. It’s the color of any links I may include. It goes with almost anything. If something is available in pink, I will probably get it in pink.

As long as it doesn’t make me look stupid.

How can I like something but worry about it making me stupid? I’ll tell you. When I was about sixteen, I decided to buy a bike. Having a bike has always been very important to my family, but the one I was riding was so uncomfortable. You had to bend forward and rest all your weight on your hands. Ow. Not to mention, the brakes were giving out. It was time for something new.

I went into the bike store, and my eye was immediately drawn to the beach cruisers. The handlebars were higher up, which would be more comfortable, and these bikes also had pedal brakes. I wouldn’t have to squeeze a lever to stop; I could just pedal back. I feel safer with pedal brakes.

And among the display was a beautiful Mango Macaw beach cruiser, pearl pink (so said the tag), shimmering in the sun. The most beautiful bike in the world. I couldn’t take my eyes off of it. Imagine owning and riding such a bike!

My dad asked me if there was anything I wanted to try out. I turned reluctantly away from the pink bike and looked at the others. Red, yellow, blue, green. . . but I didn’t care about them. My heart had already been stolen.

But why choose the pink bike? I thought. That’s for girls who grew up playing with Barbies. I never played with Barbies. I’m a serious high school girl. Even as I said it, I knew it was a lie, but I couldn’t shake the feeling. If I told the truth, my dad and the bike shop owner would lose it. “Of course you want that bike!” they’d say, laughing. “You’re such a GIRL!”

To keep things short, I got the pink bike, and wonder of wonders no one laughed; in fact, they all said it was beautiful. I rode home wondering what I’d been so worried about. But a few weeks later, it happened again.

I was at Walmart with my mom, looking at the electronics. I had gotten a gift card for my birthday and knew exactly what I wanted: headphones. The headphones I used were falling apart, and I had to share with three other people anyway. There were so many kinds of headphones, it was kind of overwhelming–bamer headphones, Bluetooth headphones, little kid headphones with rainbow-colored cat ears. But there was a simple pair of ten-dollar headphones that even had color options. There was blue, black. . . and pink.

I reached for the pink, and instantly those thoughts came back. People will think I’m a girly-girl. People will think I’m a little kid.

I bought them anyway, feeling terribly embarrassed.

A year later, I went to the eye doctor for new glasses. The tests were done, and I went to try on frames. I tried tortoiseshell and green and a pair of wire-rimmed glasses with round lenses. Nothing really hit. Then I saw a pair of pale purple-pink frames.

Of course you want pink. You’re just a stupid girl. You should go with the green frames.

The problem was, I really only liked the pink ones.

I took them off the rack, as timid as a mouse on a trap, and asked my mom, “Should I try these on?”

Again, long story short, I’ve changed my prescription several times since then. But I keep choosing the same pink frames.

Here’s what I realized.

I pick pink because I like pink.

Colors come with a lot of stereotypes–green is for slime monsters, red is for stop signs. And the stereotypes are always changing–green is also for moss, and red is also for fall. The styles may come with connotations of their own, but at the end of the day, there is no set-in-stone rule that says liking pink makes you stupid.

I was afraid to pick out the things I liked because I thought people would judge me and think little of me. But what actually happened was I judged and thought little of them. I assumed bad things about my love of pink for some reason, and decided everyone else believed them too. In short, I let my assumptions of what other people were thinking define my worth, and I judged them for no reason at all.

I see so much of this on social media. People assume that their interests or habits are wrong, so they must do what everyone expects of them. People assume other people assume their interests or habits are wrong, so they either get defensive or jump to changing themselves. And in some cases, people do judge other people for their interests. But at the end of the day, who is our standard? People we’ll probably never meet in real life? People who’ve never been in our heads and know nothing about us?

We should trust that we were made the way we are for a purpose. That for some reason, God created the color pink and called it good, and He decided I should be one of those people who likes pink enough to put her laundry in a pink hamper. Let God be your standard, guys. Not only will that help you mentally and spiritually, it’ll also show a lot of silly things you’ve started believing. For instance, nowhere in the Bible do I find any verse saying we should look down on those who love pink, for they are feebleminded and immature. As a matter of fact, the Bible says not to look down at anyone at all, so take that!

The more you rely on other people to decide what you like, the more detached you’ll become from yourself. Are bike choices and glasses frames super deep? Not really. But if I pressured myself to do what I thought everyone wanted, I’d be betraying myself. And I do betray myself in so many ways that are actually very deep. But God created me special. I have to choose to believe that and live that out according to His ways.

Pink really is just a color. It’s the color of the tumbler that holds my tea, the color of the retro radio-style speaker I got at Aldi, and the color of my computer mouse. I wore pink opal studs after I got my ears pierced. I even have a pink shirt advertising my school!

I’m sure there are many ways you pressure yourself to be something you’re not. You might stay out of conversations because you don’t think anyone wants your opinion. You might hide the fact that you read classics because you don’t want to look pretentious. If this is a common theme in your life, stop and look at what got you to this point. I’ve found (surprise, surprise) that my self-confidence dwindles a lot when I’ve put too much focus on myself. If I’m feeling stupid, that’s a good sign I’m not leaning on God as much as I should be.

Bring your worries before Him and ask who He made you to be. He always has an answer, because He’s the One Who gives you purpose.