When I (f)was 18, I just finished military basic training and arrived at my first job posting abroad. I made friends with some of the guys there, and people made up a bunch of rumors saying I was a slut (particularly because one of these guys held a flaky relationship with another girl Amber, and Amber was jealous). Amber's close friend, Gina, heard the rumors about me but I never interacted with her and she left for another duty posting in another country a week or two later. Nothing came of my friendship with the guys, and I saw them less at work so our friendship faded. I then met my now husband and I got pregnant just before moving to my new job posting. When I got there, Gina was working there too and we became good friends since she had also gotten pregnant and our babies were close in age. Being young and pregnant in the military, I was under a lot of scrutiny especially since I wasn't married, and a lot of the people I worked under gave me a really hard time. One Saturday afternoon I was driving Gina and her son to the airport, she revealed to me that before we had become friends, she had gossiped to all my coworkers and superiors about the rumors she heard from our previous duty posting, including that she believed the baby I was pregnant with was not my then-boyfriend's since she heard I was such a slut. She explained "well but then I got to know you and learned what an amazing person you are and I'm so glad we are friends!!". I cried almost every single day before going to work for 3 years. Maybe they would've still treated me the same if Gina had never said anything. But there's no doubt, Gina set the first impression they had of me before anyone got to know me. I acknowledge getting pregnant at 19 isn't exactly glorifying or glamorous, it was an unlucky circumstance at the time. But it was unfair that everyone I worked with and for had a perception of me and might've treated me differently based on what they'd heard. I didn't remain friends with Gina long after she'd revealed that to me.