I was actually with my sister and my nephew at a park several weeks ago, my nephew is about 11 years old, and he was complaining that the other people in the park were staring at him and making fun of him and it just made me sad to hear him think of himself that way. Obviously no one even noticed him in any bad way at all. He's hasn't had the easiest time being a kid.
But I was also sad because I knew exactly what he meant, because I used to feel the exact same way, especially in adolescence. I always thought people were looking at me, or whispering about me, or laughing. It wasn't a pleasant experience.
I'm not exactly sure HOW I got over that, probably by getting a little older, and becoming much more aware of my own thoughts. We are our worst critics. We can have negative self-talk in our heads all the time and not realize that there is an actual dialogue of thoughts saying "I'm bad" "No one likes me" "Everyone's laughing".
Ask yourself if YOU would watch someone else in public spaces and judge them. That answer might not be so clear at first. But once you are certain that you would not do that, you can learn to trust that others may have a similar attitude.
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