When I was about 4 or 5 my family was driving thru downtown Chicago. I saw probably my first African-American person and thought they were Chocolate People!

jmr

My son (now 17) used to wear a necktie when he was 3 because he said he did not want people to think he was a stranger.

Proud mom

My Step daughter kept annoying me about the tattos on my arms and so I finally broke down and told her that when I was her age my mom told me not to draw or write on myself and I didnt listen, a few days later she was crying hysterically and I asked her what was wrong and she told me that her little cousin was drawing on her back and she went on to explain that she cant reach to wash her own back so it will be there forever !!!!!! hahahaha

Opey Tailor

i used to believe there were left and right socks. why not??

x[k][t]x

When I was VERY little, which was long before Eminem, I used to think that only black people could rap. My theory was that their larger lips would bounce together to help them talk so fast.

ewganhoff

I used to believe that if you took a shower after a day of tanning the tan would come off in the shower

Shar

i once thought that some days your face changed to look like someone else's

i decided one day on my way to nursery, that i looked like this girl who i didn't like and refused to go in (involving kicking and screaming). my mum didn't make me go but she was furious because i wouldn't tell her why.

Anon

In 1st and 2nd grades it was "cool" to wear a bra, and, of course, none of us did. But I used to roll up my undershirt and tell everyone I was wearing one. I was so cool. lol

m.l.

I used to believe that if a girl thought that you were a boy and you weren't, you would automatically become a boy, because 'girls knew everything'.

One messed up little girl

I used to believe all down-syndrome people were related and that they were just a really big family I didn't think they were any different from normal people just thought they were all related

snooky

One of my old beliefs might sound a bit racist, but, I was young, I used to think that all black and mixed race people HAD to wear a spot on their foreheads.

Ryan

For a long time when i was little, i never made faces (like put my nose up like a pig) while i was outside and the wind was blowing, because my aunties and uncle told me that if ou do that, then your face will stay like that forever. My aunties even told me that they knew a girl in their class at school who had done that, and that she always had a screwed up face because she'd done just that.

psychologically-damaged child

I used to believe that all the bald people were aliens sent to destroy me

The Ice Cream Sandwich Monster

When I was a little girl, I used to believe that all of the kids that wore saddle shoes were retarded. Imagine my shock and disbelief when my own mother actually bought a pair for me and wanted me to wear them! Even at such an early age, I remember thinking, "Is she trying to TELL me something??" :-)

Donna - Pasadena, California

I used to think that the difference between a skirt and a dress was the hemline - a skirt was short and a dress was long. I didn't learn the truth until my girlfriend explained it to me at the age of 21.

Anon

when i was little, i used to make faces, especially the one where you put your fingers in your cheeks and pull so you have a horizontally oblong-ish mouth. my mom told me that if the wind blew the wrong way, my face would stay like that forever.

Anon

Up until I was about 10, my dad always called hair gel "Brokaw" because of Tom Brokaw on the news, and how he always had his hair gelled. My brother and I thought that Brokaw was another name for hair gel and called it that.

Anon

My son had very light blond hair as a small boy and we called him our "little toe-head". He'd always say, "Nossir!" Years later he confessed that he thought we were telling him his head was shaped like a big toe. Poor baby.

Anon

when i was younger i used to always make weird faces at my sisters and cousins(e.i crossing my eyes, etc.) and my parents used to tell me that if i kept making faces that it would stay like that forever.

jessica

In my elementary school, there were two kids with Down syndrome. I didn't really understand what was up with them because no one would talk about it - I only knew that they looked funny, in sort of the same way, so I assumed they were related.
When I found out the truth I felt like I'd committed some terrible crime, and every time I come across someone with Down syndrome, I'm a little afraid they'll be mad at me for it.

Jenna