Have you ever done something because other kids were doing it? Maybe you said you liked a band, or hated a teacher because you didn't want to be the dissenting voice, even if you didn't quite feel that way. Or maybe you took a risk or got into trouble. On the flip side, peer pressure could have helped you stay home studying the night before a big test because that was what everyone else you knew was doing.

The fact is, unless you live alone in a cave, you will be affected by peer pressure throughout your life. This isn't a sign that you are weak. It is a sign that you are human. Researchers have found that humans (and chimpanzees--another species that lives in groups as adults) are affected by peer pressure as early as two years old, and that while these effects might be heightened during adolescence, they don't disappear in adults.

But just because peer pressure is natural, that doesn't mean that GLBT teens always have an easy time navigating it.

Here are how some GLBT teens have experienced or witnessed peer pressure:

One reader feels that girls often make out with each other not because they are really into it, but rather because they feel pressured to do so.

"For some reason guys find girls kissing to be a turn on. I wonder why they do it? Either they are faking it, or it's all peer pressure."

Another teen explains that kids feel pressured to bully or are cruel to their classmates over their real or perceived sexual orientation.

"[If they think you are gay] the kids hate you because one kid hates you. It's peer pressure, it's that simple. If you gave one popular kid the choice to hate, like, or not care, then whatever he chose is LIKELY what every other kid would choose. The other kids act like that because if they don't, they're afraid that their friends will hate them, and then after growing up like that, they formed an opinion that they'd want to defend."

A third reader discusses the role peer pressure played in his substance use.

There was a while, when I was feeling really lonely. I live in a rural community, and gays are more or less at the bottom of the very food chain, so I didn't have anyone to talk to about anything really. I mean I had a few straight female friends. But no matter how hard the tried they just didn't really understand. So somewhere mid-year I turned to drugs. Cannabis in fact. I mean, drugs had been something I never wanted to do, but it just worked out that way. Like I was having a really bad day, and a lot of my friends where away on an excursion, and then at recess as I was walking someone was walking past me, and they spat at me and said the 'f' word . Usually this wouldn't affect me much, but I had already had someone else try to trip me up and do the same thing earlier. Then a few minutes later I ran into some friends. They where about to skip class to meet up with another friend, so I tagged along. Then there was that peer pressure crap, so we all got high. And then I started making it a kind of habit when I hung out with them."

If you have been in these kind of situations or seen them happening, don't beat yourself up. But do try to keep in mind just how powerful peer pressure can be. If you think you will be easily lead by it, try to stay away from situations where you think you will feel like you need to do things you aren't comfortable with just to fit in.