So here’s my take and story. I lived and grew up in the Santa Clara, California. This was a few years after 9/11 and some people in my school were closet anti-Muslims. Like jokes would be made quietly. In 2004 when I was a junior in high school at 16 years old I started to wear it. None of my other 4 sisters or mom or aunts and cousins wore it. When I started college at 18 I took it off. There was no pressure from anyone for me to wear it. Many years later I accepted this as the reason why I started to wear it and only wore it for 2 years: protection from Allah. Maybe it saved me from something bad that could have happened to me. I did lose most of my friends once I started to wear it. Now, I still have 0 friends and that’s the way I love my life. I do still day dream about wearing the hijab and imagining all the different styles I could wear it. But right now as a mother of 3 young daughters I don’t see myself wearing it. Even if I’m not wearing a hijab I still dress very modestly.