Stempien, a senior at Coronado High School, is one of many teenagers who feel they are judged every day by their decision to stretch their ears. Because of the appearance, most people with gauges, especially teens, are stereotyped as delinquents or drug addicts, Stempien says.

"I think that gauges are so ugly and stupid," says Lizzy Skouson, a senior at Bonanza High School. "Anyone who does that made a bad choice."

But in fact, they might be the valedictorian of their high school class, or, like others, be attending a top university.

Gauges, also known as plugs, are earrings intended for piercings larger than the normal 20-gauge size. In many cases, people literally have large holes in their earlobes. As the hole grows larger, the gauge size decreases by an even number from the initial 20 down to zero, and then to a double zero. After that, the hole is recognized in inches.

Like Stempien, Christina Geraci, a senior at Clark High School, has been stretching her ears since middle school simply because she was drawn to the unusual look.

"I saw it like a piercing; it's just something you get because you like it," Geraci says.

In both cases, their friends, who already had gauges, served as the main influence in their decision to begin stretching their ears. Geraci stopped at a zero gauge and does not intend to go any bigger, while Stempien reduced his 11/4-inch ears to a 7/8 inch because of his current job requirements as a busboy at a restaurant. However, Stempien says he would never close his holes; they literally have grown on him and become a part of who he is today.

After years with stretched ears, Stempien says he believes that people will judge him regardless. He covered his ears for a moment to prove he's normal without the sight of his plugs while wishing people would get to know anyone with gauges before they form an opinion.

Geraci says she thinks people are unhappy with the trend because they aren't familiar with the style.

"They think of me as more of a rebel or they're just disgusted because they don't understand," she says.

But after all the mocking and stares that both students have received over the past five years, they may have proved their critics wrong -- Stempien with his valedictorian speech and Geraci with her acceptance letter from the University of California, Berkeley, which she will attend this fall.

"I don't think badly of people with gauges," says Brittany Dickens, a Bonanza junior. "I just think they chose a different way to express themselves."