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The Sweetest Girl Takes on the World

Hasiyna Price and Danette Banks are friends, neighbors and cousins. They've been close ever since they can remember.

In a visit to the StoryCorps booth in New York, the pair talked about how Price copes with her scoliosis -- curvature of the spine -- and, especially, how it affects the way she deals with boys.

As Banks says, kids sometimes pick on others to make themselves feel better.

But Price is no easy target. She has a number of strategies to protect herself from name-calling and teasing, which she says can happen at school or in her neighborhood.

Her methods run the gamut from ignoring those trying to make fun of her, threatening violence -- and giving the cold shoulder.

Still, when asked how she would like people to think of her, Price says, "As the sweetest girl -- if you don't get on my bad side!"

This piece was produced for 'Morning Edition' by Piya Kochhar and Katie Simon.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.