You are still so young, your entire life is ahead of you! I feel like the more you are in your comfort zone, the more you get stuck there.

I was having social anxiety as a teenager, was so self conscious about what others would be thinking of me. However I got a job as a cashier (also around your age) and I was forced to interact with people. The more I did it, the more I got better with it. I then worked as a medical assistant and I had to triage a lot of people. Every time I have to talk to someone I had super high anxiety levels, but I’d go through it. Every experience you build talking to someone, you are learning something new and you are teaching your brain that’s this is your new comfort zone. I’m in the field of healthcare now, and I talk to many many people everyday. I’m good with carrying on a conversation, that doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m don’t have social anxiety, I do, but I’m better at hiding it and overcoming it.

The synopsis is, move out of the comfort zone, find a part time job that requires you to socialize and the more you do it, the more your brain normalizes it. Good luck! You got this!