When I first came to America from Saudi Arabia, I was only 5 or 6 years old. Back then, I was not wearing a head scarf, but once I was about 10 or 11 years old, my dad told me I should start wearing a hijab.

I said I didn't want to in America because everybody would make fun of me and say stuff to me. He said you should not care what other people say about your religion, you should be proud to wear it. I did not understand what he meant but I decided to wear it if it was going to make my dad proud.

As soon as I got out in the streets, people started looking at me and whispering about what I was wearing. I got really mad!

This one guy came up to me and asked, "What is that you are wearing?" I said, "It is called a hijab and I wear it because I am a Muslim and I have to cover my hair." He just ran away from me laughing.

I was mad and happy at the same time. I was mad because he was making fun of my scarf and he did not understand why I had to wear it. I was happy because I just told him right to his face why I had to wear it and it felt good inside me because I just faced my fears about what he might say to me.

Ever since that day, I did not care what other people said about my head scarf.

I mean, sure, it does make me a little mad when people make fun of me and do not treat it like it was a normal thing, but I realized that covering my hair was part of me and that it would change my life if I did not cover my hair and went out looking like all the other girls do because, to us Muslims, that is not normal. I have realized that not everybody has the same culture or religion.

Everybody is different. Not everybody has to be the same. I am not allowed to wear short pants and a tank top out in public but others are. Also, some Muslim girls choose to wear a hijab and some girls choose not to wear it. The girls who choose not to wear it do not understand what being a true Muslim means, in my opinion. Ever since I started to wear a hijab, Muslims also started to treat me differently and nicely because I now know that it is part of who I am.

So, wearing a hijab has some good aspects and some bad, the good ones usually come from Muslims, but sometimes also from non-Muslims. The bad ones sometimes come from the Muslim girls who don't wear a hijab and, obviously, some non-Muslims.

When I see that my wearing a hijab helps to convince other Muslim girls to start covering their hair, I think it is a very good thing.