“I’ve been interested in dark and spooky things from a young age, but it still came as quite a shock to several family members when I started dressing Goth. A few male relatives in particular seemed to suddenly think it was ok to constantly take the piss out of me. I had to put up with comments ranging from, "Let me take a photo so that in five years time you can laugh at how stupid you look," to "At least you’ll never get raped looking like that!" and "If you get beat up it’s your fault for looking weird”.

My family had always been the one group of people who I felt were accepting of me. I was always different from the other kids at school and found it hard to make friends except with other ‘misfits’. In secondary school I was badly bullied, including being pushed down a flight of stairs, and one guy trying to set me on fire with an aerosol can and a lighter, and I needed my family to support me.

I remember once on a family holiday, when I was fifteen, I walked into the hotel foyer and an old man said to his companion, "That girl has a ring in her nose, she must have come from a pig farm." My mum, who overheard the comment, went ballistic, but later on I heard another family member say, "Well, if she’s going to dress like that that’s what she should expect." But why should I? Why should anyone?

Eventually I dropped out of school, and I’ve been home educated ever since. Over the last year or so things have settled down within my family. I think it’s become clear that I’m not going to change who I am and how I look because of other people’s negative opinions.

Thankfully my Mum is wonderful and has never complained about my dress sense. She held my hand for every new piercing, and even helped me shave my head. But why is it that, as soon as someone chooses to dress differently, they become fair game for everyone – even their own family?”

Amy Townsend, Hampshire