“Proud” is the word junior Bronte Bradshaw used to describe her mom’s feelings about her nose piercing Bronte got for her 15th birthday. Bronte’s mom, Alex Bradshaw, got her first nose ring when she was 14 and now has two, so she was excited that her daughter wanted to follow in her footsteps.

“I liked it,” Alex said. “I had no problem with it at all. I got mine at 14 so I thought it was about time. If it was a tattoo that would be different because that doesn’t go away, but a nose ring you can take out.”

They can split nose ring packages and shop for them together, and Bronte and her mom have been able to bond over their piercings. Recently, they bought a pack together that had one ring that Alex really wanted and kept, and she gave Bronte the rest. Bronte is glad that she got her nose pierced because she likes the way that it looks. She got her nose pierced in Virginia before she moved to Missouri.

“I went in there terrified,” Bronte said. “I started shaking and my mom was trying to calm me down because she’s got piercings everywhere. It started out as me holding my mom’s hand for dear life.”

It was a spontaneous decision for Bronte, but many people didn’t notice it at first. Bronte said that some of her teachers in Virginia didn’t ask her about it until a month later. One of Bronte’s friends, FHN senior Cassondra Tompkins, said she thinks it’s unique and expressive. Bronte is graduating a year early and she wants to be a teacher. She isn’t afraid about the nose ring affecting her future because it is easy to take out. She also has the option to put a less noticeable ring in. She doesn’t plan to get any more piercings either; she wants to keep it simple.

“I don’t want anything weird, because I’m trying to be a teacher and I’m not going to have it all over the place, and plus I just don’t want it,” Bronte said. “This one’s low key so it’s okay.”