Be Strange

If you're tired of being like—or looking like—everyone else, then being strange may be just the thing for you. Whether you want to be quirky, offbeat, or just plain weird, there are plenty of tips that you can use to stop feeling ordinary. If you want to be strange, then you have to stop caring what anybody thinks about you and get ready to express your weird inner self.

Steps

Getting into the Mindset

  1. Stop caring what anyone else thinks of you. If you really want to be strange, then the first thing you have to do is to stop worrying about what anyone else thinks about who you are or what you do. You have to be comfortable with expressing your individuality, wearing what makes you feel good, saying what’s on your mind, and generally living life the way you want to live it. If you can’t stop trying to satisfy other people or to do what you think other people expect you to do, then you won’t ever be strange.
    • Of course, it can feel easier said than done to stop caring what other people think about you, and you won’t be able to do it overnight. Still, you can take steps to start doing your own thing little by little, until you find that one day you’re no longer worrying about what anyone else will say about it.
    • One way to make it easier to do this is to hang out with people who don’t judge you for marching to the beat of your own drummer and who make you feel comfortable with doing whatever suits you.
  2. Don’t go out of your way to be too different. Though you may want to be strange, there’s no need for you to dye your hair pink, start wearing a hula skirt, or to yodel at the top of your lungs in the middle of class—unless, of course, that’s really what you want to do! You can find your own way to be strange without making it look like you’re trying too hard. Focus on doing what feels right instead of on making an impression.
    • If you try too hard to be different, then you may not feel like you’re being true to yourself. Of course, if you really do want to be completely random and shocking, then you should feel comfortable going for it.
  3. Gain the confidence you need to truly be strange. Though you may think that people who are strange are loners, misfits, or generally unhappy people, it takes real confidence to truly be okay with being strange. If you want to step outside the box and be strange, then you should make sure that you’re happy with who you are and what you have to offer. You have to be secure in yourself first before you go out on a limb and put yourself out there, or you will be disappointed if people don’t react the way you hoped they would.
    • Work on loving yourself for who you are and on being proud of your strengths. Make a list of all of the things you’re good at and be pleased with yourself for that success.
    • Being confident doesn’t mean being perfect. It means being happy with your strengths while also embracing your flaws and working to improve wherever you can. If there are parts of you that you don’t like but can’t change, such as your height, then you should work on accepting those if you want to be truly confident.
    • Though confidence doesn’t come overnight, you can take steps to build it. One thing you can do is to have absolute confidence in your body language. Work on standing tall, making eye contact, and avoiding slouching or looking at the ground.
  4. Be an individual. If you truly want to be strange, then you have to be comfortable with being an individual. This means having your own fashion, your own tastes, and your own ideas instead of following someone else’s ideas of what strange or normal may be. You have to be able to confidently voice your own opinions, be ready to disagree with the popular trends, and to generally assert yourself even when it would be easier to stay quiet.
    • If you’re a true individual, then you’re prepared to be a complicated person with many sides. You don’t need to be perfect to be your own person and should feel comfortable admitting your mistakes.
    • Being an individual means not being a follower or being part of a crowd. Though you don’t need to be a loner, if you’re just doing what a lot of other quirky or different people are doing, then you’re not really being an individual.
  5. Read and educate yourself. If you want to be strange, then you have to have enough knowledge to be able to know random things about random subjects, and to surprise your friends with tidbits of information when they least expect it. Whether you like comic books, geology, Japanese, or any other subject, read up on it as much as you can so you feel armed with knowledge and facts when you face the world.
    • If you’re well-read and know what’s going on in the world, then this will give your strangeness more legitimacy. You don’t know want it to look like you’re being weird just for the sake of being weird without having the knowledge to back it up.

Putting It into Action

  1. Don’t be shy. One thing that most strange people have in common is that they’re not shy. They’re happy to talk to new people, to share their thoughts with people they don’t know that well, to try new things, and to be open about their feelings. If you’re too quiet to give people a sense of your personality, then it’ll be hard to be strange. Of course, there’s something to be said for the dark, brooding strange type, but if you want to truly be strange, then you have to reveal enough of yourself for people to get a sense of who you are.
    • You don’t need to be chatty or energetic; you just have to be open enough to share your thoughts, however strange they may be.
  2. Do the unexpected. People who are strange are known to do things that nobody expects. Whether you’re in a group or out by yourself, if you want to be strange, then you have to be ready to surprise people. You can be as spontaneous as you want and know that you can totally shock people when they least expect it if you want to be strange. Remember that, if you’re ordinary, then people feel like they can predict whatever you’re going to do next. Here are some ways to completely do the unexpected:
    • If you feel inspired, burst into a song and dance
    • Start quoting from your favorite movie or book
    • Tell people a surprising fact about yourself
    • Surprise people with your ability to play an instrument, speak a foreign language, or perform a card trick
    • Be completely random. Interrupt your friends in the middle of a conversation to tell them what you had for lunch, or to cite a funny fact about your favorite movie.
  3. Be awkward. Strange people also don’t tend to be the most social creatures in the world. If you want to be strange, then you have to make an effort to be awkward whenever you can. The general rule is that people who are strange are that way because they don’t follow societal norms. One way that they go against the grain is by not interacting normally with many people. This can come off as awkward behavior, and you can easily pull it off. Here are some great ways to be awkward:
    • When someone comes up and starts talking to you, walk away without explanation.
    • Retell the same story three times in one conversation and then apologize afterward every time.
    • Tell overly personal stories to people you just met.
    • Burp in public without excusing yourself.
    • Stutter and mumble a lot.
    • Whenever there’s a short silence, cry, “Awkward!”
    • Talk to complete strangers, even when they’re obviously busy.
  4. Try a few unexpected activities. If you want to be strange, then you can’t just do what everyone else around you does in your spare time. Though you don’t have to try new activities just because they’re weird, if you want to be different, then you have to go away from the mainstream. Part of being strange is the willingness to try new things that would not appeal to most people. It can also mean trying things that are fun and quirky and a bit out of the ordinary. Here are some fun activities you can try that would set you apart from the mainstream:
    • Learning magic tricks
    • Writing your own comic books
    • Playing the ukulele or the banjo
    • Learning the art of face painting
    • Learning a hard-to-master foreign language
  5. Be extra hyper. Though there are different ways to be strange, from being the loner strange type to the quirky strange type, one way to be strange is to have an extra energy that most people don’t possess. This energy will allow you to share your interests, to be more active than most people, and to have the will to share random facts and information with the people around you. If you want to be strange, then being highly energetic is one approach to take.
    • When you’re really excited about something, try talking a mile a minute. One way people can be strange is because they don’t talk the same way as other people.
    • Don’t be afraid to share your excitement about something. Don’t play it cool and and act less enthusiastic about a subject than you want to be.
    • If you feel like bouncing around or being extra active, even if that means doing jumping jacks in the middle of a conversation, then no one is stopping you.

Going the Extra Mile

  1. Get Get Distracted by ordinary things. For instance, tell your friends that the ceiling is distracting. Elaborate and say, "It just like... sits up there" in an awkward tone. Keep staring at it with wide eyes and act utterly transfixed. Ignore anything your friends or the people around you say for a few minutes. The more ordinary the object that you’re mesmerized by, the better.
  2. Redefine the art of wearing clothes. Though you don’t need to dress completely wacky just to be different, you can start dressing in a way that makes you feel a little bit less like everybody else. You don’t need to wear a long trenchcoat or a shiny pink dress with sparkly heels if you don’t feel like it, but you should put yourself out there and wear graphic tees, brightly-colored jeans, fun hair accessories, a unique amount of makeup, or just something that makes you look and feel differently while still being you if you want your appearance to immediately signal that there’s something different about you.
    • Have a weird hairdo to match your clothes if you want to. Use the stiffest hair gel you can find. Spike your hair straight up, or invent a cool, strange hairstyle. This is all about imagination.
  3. Give a name to an inanimate object. Carry it around and talk to it like it was your pal. Make sure you act like the object really is your best friend and that anyone who tries to tell you that you’re talking to an object is crazy. Look really shocked, angry, or hurt when someone tries to point out that you’re not acting normally.
  4. Talk in a foreign accent. Make up your own words to throw in as you speak in the odd accent. When asked where you're from, say Alaska. Most importantly, make the accent viable; don't just mumble your way through. If you’re really convincing, then this will really confuse people and will make them think you’re strange. Make sure not to fall out of the accent the whole time you’re around that person.
  5. Meditate in the middle of a hotel lobby. Just take a seat and clasp your hands together and close your eyes. You'll be awed by the reaction. If someone tries to stop you, just shush them and tell them you’re in the middle of an important meeting.
  6. Act strange when you’re dining. Throw a fit at a fancy restaurant because you want chicken fingers and apple juice. While waiting for your food, you should grab the fork and knife and clench them in your fists, keeping the sharp-sides up, and then bang the bottom of your silverware on the table continuously. (For variety, throw in your own personal beat or drum line.)
  7. Walk around in circles and talk to yourself. Then make weird noises and shapes with your hand and twitch your head. This will definitely make you look strange. You should only do this if it’s fun for you and if it doesn’t feel like you’re putting on too much of a show.
  8. Make personalized jewelry out of acorns, sticks, leaves, or any junk you find lying around. Try selling them at school or giving them away as gifts. Even if it’s something very simple and obviously shoddy, make it look like you really put a lot of thought and effort into it.
  9. Drift as you walk. Pretend as if you are floating in an another planet. Just act as dreamy and out of it as possible, and it won’t take long for people to think you’re truly strange.
  10. Invent odd nicknames for people. Even if they have a boring or short name (i.e. Jane), think of something off-the-wall (i.e. Janey-Jane)! It’s even better if the person obviously does not like the nickname, or if you don’t know the person nearly well enough to give them a nickname. You can even try to invent a nickname for yourself and keep trying, without success, to get it to stick.
  11. Hum or sing at odd times and places. This is yet another way to be completely random and to make people see that you’re strange. If it’s a quiet moment or someone has just told a serious or touching story, then this will be especially effective. You can even try humming to yourself in the middle of a test until your teacher and the surrounding students notice what you’re doing.
    • If humming or singing at odd times isn’t doing it for you, you can try gobbling like a turkey when it’s especially quiet. This will work particularly well around Thanksgiving!
  12. Smell unexpected objects. This is another way to instantly look strange. For example, you can go to a wall, sniff it, and say a random thing, such as, “Hmmm...minty.” You can even try to smell other people’s hair, though this will freak them out or come off as offensive. You can also smell yourself, if you want to make things awkward.
  13. Dance like a maniac with no music in a public place and then walk away like nothing happened. This is another way to show people that you’re decidedly strange. Act like you just had some sort of a dancing spasm and that you’re just trying to walk it off. If people look at you funny or ask what you’re doing, just act like you have absolutely no idea what they’re talking about.

Tips

  • Don't try too hard; just do what everyone else doesn't do.
  • Staring at people may cause you to get into trouble. To avoid this, stare at people with the most awkward face, for example, gape open your mouth like as if you have no control over it so they find it strange rather that annoying.
  • Use your imagination -- there are no rules for this, because anything goes!

Warnings

  • Your parents may want you to see a psychologist.
  • People will make fun of you.
  • You will be stared at.
  • You may get kicked out of public places.
  • You may be gossiped frequently about.
  • You will have to get out of your comfort zone.
  • you may be seen as a try hard, most dreamy strange people are completely happy with who they are. So instead of changing just to be strange, try changing to just be happy, you may end up achieving both.
  • You might lose your friends.

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