Oreo Cookie by Kiersten

Oreo Cookie by Kiersten - July 2025 Scholarship Essay

Oreos are my absolute favorite cookie. When I was in elementary school and my older brother was in middle school, we would accompany my mom to the grocery store and every single time we went, we’d both leave my mom to go find the snack section. I would always get the oreo hershey bar, and my brother would get the one dollar cup of chocolate oreos. My mother would get annoyed anytime we would bombard her with snacks we expected her to buy but that never stopped her from buying them for us. I have loved anything oreo related since I was a child, which is why when I got to middle school, I didn’t mind being compared to one. Why would I be offended when I was only being associated with my favorite sugary snack?

I attended a predominately black middle school. I assumed that I would feel much more comfortable being surrounded by other kids that looked like me, but it ended being quite the opposite. It was difficult for me to make friends which was something I was completely unfamiliar with as I had tons of friends in elementary school. But I stuck out like a sore thumb at my middle school because the way I spoke was different, my hobbies, my choice of hairstyles, my clothes, and pretty much everything that makes me- me. Other people noticed these differences as well and would often ask me, “why do you speak so proper?”, or “ why do you act white?”. It was these questions that made me incredibly insecure at eleven years old. But the most hurtful comment was being referred to as an Oreo cookie once I found out what that meant. People would tell me that I was black on the outside but white on the inside. I became terrified to make friends with other black kids because I thought that if they got to know my personality, they would make fun of me. I ended up isolating myself from everyone around me and eating lunch in a teachers classroom. I did everything I could to avoid being called an Oreo to the point where I found any excuse to not have to socialize with my peers, including asking to go to the nurse just to get out of group or partner work. But now I am a senior in high school and have gotten to fall in love with my personality and everything that makes me - me. So if I could tell my past self one thing, it would be that there is no correction version of you in the world, because there isn’t anything wrong with you.

Throughout my entire childhood people had always commented on my personality and the way I speak telling me that there is something wrong with me. People from my own community were trying to isolate me from our community because I wasn’t black enough for them. But just like there is no correct way to be black, there is no correct way to be me. God created me the way I am for the people He has called me to minister to. I would want my younger self to know that she is perfect the way she is and is exactly what God intended her to be. Everyone tried to convince her that her personality was somehow incorrect and that she had to conform to the way everyone else around her acted. But there was never anything wrong with her in the first place and I realize that now. The way I speak and my overall personality is a huge contribution to the opportunities I’ve gotten at such a young age from terrific kid awards, honor roll every quarter, induction into the Junior National Honor Society, and the compliments I’ve gotten from the age of 5 about how well spoken and mature I am. My past self needs to know at she is not an Oreo cookie, but an intelligent young black woman. She is fearfully and wonderfully made, created in Gods image and is absolutely perfect.