My name is Alaina Sellers and I grew up in Page, Arizona until I was seven years old. I grew up on the reservation with a family of four. I lived near my grandparents and they were very strict on following the Native American culture and would take me to a farm they had where they raised livestock so at a young age I began to have a love for animals. I had an older brother and he uses to pick on me at a young age and did not care if I was a girl. also grew up with my favorite cousin and he uses to play with action figures, and Nerf guns with me. At a young age, I used to hang around boys because my closes friends were all boys. I was a tomboy and I did not have any girlfriends because to me they were strange from me. When I moved to Phoenix, Arizona I was exposed to different cultures and not just the Native American culture. I was really shy and felt out of place because I was not comfortable with the different types of children in the city. I was also not very confident with putting myself out there for people so I did not have a lot of friends coming to the city and I ate a lot. I gained so much weight and my self-esteem got smaller and smaller. I use to get picked on for looking like a boy sometimes because I would wear basketball shorts and t-shirts all the time. I also got picked on as well for being bigger than most kids because I did not have a healthy diet. I stayed shy until I reached the sixth grade and I met one the biggest influence of my life. My closest friend at the time whose name was Tamera helped me overcome being scared of new things. She brought out the real me and she was a very outgoing person and was extremely loud. She had me comfortable with being loud and comfortable with myself. I was a very shy person because I experience Sexual Assault from a family member but did not speak out about it until I was a freshman in high school. While I hid this secret I began to work out and watch what I ate and became focused on basketball and ended up losing 40 pounds and my self-esteem went through the roof. I was a very outgoing, friendly, and comforting person. I loved to help those around me because I knew how it felt to feel unnoticed. I always wanted to make people smile. However, growing up I struggled a lot with my sexuality and was afraid to admit that I had an interest in both genders. It was not until my sophomore year I had friends that accepted me and let express myself. I also finally told people about my abuse and went to therapy and learned to cope. I learned a lot while in therapy and by my Junior year I never felt so comfortable with who I was and learned to express myself. I lost my best friend due to a fight but I knew she would have been proud of whom I became. Now my senior year I am comfortable with who I am and I am much wiser than I was. I still try to help those around me and make people laugh. I choose this picture because it shows who I am. I am always smiling, still, dress like a tomboy, and still have a lot of guy friends. Now I just learned to accept it since then and I and my cousin are still extremely close but he was the main reason I was able to show my inner tomboy at that age and to now.