Writing your college essay about shyness isn’t going to be a walk in the park. Well, there’s not much in the college admissions process that is a walk in the park. So, that doesn’t make the topic seem so scary.

Nonetheless, you should be afraid! Within reason, of course. We don’t want you crying in a corner or anything. If anything, here’s the long story made short: writing about shyness in your college essay can be good. It can also be bad if you’re well, bad at writing.

But, that’s what this article is for.

We understand that shyness and really just introversion in general is a special topic for a lot of students in the admission’s process. Thus, it needs to be approached delicately and with care. If you follow the steps we provide and take careful note of the advice we provide here on this guide, you’ll be capable of writing a much stronger college essay compared to many others.

So, without further ado, let’s cover how to write a college essay about shyness that blows the rest of the competition out of the water.

Table of Contents

1. Will Writing About Shyness in Your College Essay Make You Look Weak?
2. How to Write Your College Essay About Shyness.
   • Define Your Terms. What Does Being Shy Mean?
   • Imagery is Your Best Friend.
   • Demonstrating Strength.
   • Get Creative.
3. Example College Essay About Being Shy.
4. Why You May Need a College Essay Editor for This Topic.

Will Writing About Shyness in Your College Essay Make You Look Weak?

Here’s the short answer. Yes and no.

Most people are concerned about writing their college essay about shyness because they don’t want to appear weak to the admissions officers. However, they don’t weigh in all the factors that go into the application process. What do you mean by weak? What do you mean by bad? Is it okay to be weak in the application essay? Do admissions officers want us to open up since it shows adversity and strength?

The general gist is this: college admissions advisors understand that everyone has a weakness. But, it’s more about what you do about your weaknesses that matter than the existence of weakness itself.

Is writing your college essay about shyness a demonstration of weakness? Yes. Is it something bad to write about? No. Do you need to also write about your ability to demonstrate strength in the face of weakness? Yes.

We’ll cover a little bit more about this in some of the latter sections. But, for now, let’s cover how to write your college essay about shyness. These next few sections will discuss best practices you should follow to make the essay stand out in the admissions pool.

How to Write Your College Essay About Shyness.

Define Your Terms. What Does Being Shy Mean?

Most people go into the college admissions process assuming the admissions process would simply “know” their perspective. Sure, admissions officers will attempt to be empathetic. However, it’s crucial to know that empathy requires work. Admissions officers must put in the effort to understand and articulate what you’re saying to better understand and deconstruct your personality traits.

If you don’t define in your own terms what shyness is to you, it’ll make it more difficult for admissions officers to truly understand your perspective.

Maybe to one person, shyness is self-protection from the danger of the judgment. Perhaps to another person, shyness is just fear and crippling anxiety. Or, it could even just be a shroud for something more abstract and complicated in your psyche.

Whatsoever shyness means to you, it’s critical you deconstruct the nature of your shyness and understand what it really is. Without a proper understanding of what your shyness actually is on a psychological level and how it manifests, you won’t be able to write your experiences to admissions officers in a way that they can understand you.

Once you clarify what shyness is in your experience, your readers may properly analyze you and, thus, make the right inferences on you and your fit for the school.

Imagery is Your Best Friend.

There are many who have experienced what it’s like to be shy. However, everyone’s experience is unique. So, how do we show what our experience with shyness is like to others who cannot understand?

This is where imagery comes in.

By writing your experiences in detail using strong imagery, you can help admissions officers feel and understand what you were going through. This is particularly useful for those who had an abstract or unusual experience with their shyness that is hard to articulate.

There are many ways to write with strong imagery. But, this will just cover one way to incorporate imagery when writing about shyness in your college essay. To write with imagery, think about the many interpretations and senses. Think of touch, taste, smell, sight, and sound. How did all these sensory perceptions manifest in your experience?

When you’re shy in an interaction with friends, do you feel your heart pulsing much faster and do you feel the hairs on your body stand straight? Do you hear everything all at once because your danger senses start to tingle and go out of control? Do the people you’re talking to look terrifying to the point where you don’t even want to look in their direction for fear that their eyes will bore holes into you? Perhaps you’re having fun with friends and you stopped by a place for snacks and drinks; but, you don’t even notice the food in your mouth or how spicy it is because even physical pain can’t overshadow the fear and anxiety of being in a social situation.

However it manifests, you need to be specific with your imagery when you’re writing about shyness in your college essay.

Demonstrating Strength.

Here’s where things can get a little bit hard.

For most people, they consider their shyness as a weakness. That’s fair enough. However, admissions officers also want to accept students who they know are going to be a net positive to their campus. So, how do you show strength when you’re writing about shyness in your college essay? It doesn’t seem very easy, right?

Well, you’re right. It’s not easy. Many things in life aren’t easy. But like most things, the hardest obstacles typically have the best rewards. Writing about shyness in your college essay is something that, despite how hard it can be to show strength in it, can be very rewarding and make a lasting impact on admissions officers.

One way you can show strength in your college essay is to show how the shyness is actually an opportunity for you to grow over time.

Strength cannot be demonstrated without perseverence. But, what is perseverence without a little bit of sweat and elbow grease? In other words, you can’t show strength without also showing the weakness of your shyness and the inexorable overcoming of it. You can write about how shyness made it difficult for you to socialize in life, or conduct yourself in a plethora of other social-related activities. Then, use that difficulty and obstacle to show how you overcame or adapted to it over time.

Sure, there is weakness in there; but, the most impressive strength is not through demonstrating when you’re strong. It’s in showing perseverence even in the face of adversity.

Get Creative.

It helps to be creative with this kind of essay topic because most people can’t write about shyness in a unique manner. Most college applicants who write their essays about being shy understand their shyness as something that is monolithic. They don’t understand that characteristic as existing in a spectrum or even manifesting in different ways.

When you’re writing about shyness in your college essay, don’t be afraid to get unconventional when describing your experience.

One way you can go against the grain from conventional essay writing is starting by explaining your shyness in the form of analogy or metaphor. This is a great method for people who want to articulate abstract feelings such as the fear of being an imposter amongst a group of friends or the feeling of imminent danger when it doesn’t exist.

Another tip to keep in mind when writing about shyness in your college essay is your paragraph lengths. Instead of making each paragraph the same length, consider diversifying your paragraph lengths. This changes the flow of the readability. It prevents the flow from being too similar, and helps admissions officers stay focused on what you’re writing. In addition to this, diversity your sentence structure. So, don’t just write sentences with the same punctuation. Add commas. Add semicolons. Add colons. Add hyphens. Add em dashes. Change the length of your sentences.

If you incorporate all of these tips, you’ll have a college essay about shyness that stands out from the rest of the introverted application pool.

Example College Essay About Being Shy.

“Sometimes I like to frequent a popular boba spot with my friends after school. It’s what we call the “second best spot next to ‘Half&Half Tea”. The spot doesn’t have many good spots to sit down and study, though; so, we always settle with this one.

As is customary of the quintessential Bay Area Asian American experience, we take our orders, sit down in a cozy spot, open our laptops and notes, and discuss the crucial dynamics of…

“Woah, really? But, weren’t they best friends since Elementary?”

“No, look: if you use that method in game, it doesn’t actually work. You’ll never get past rank gold like that.”

“Did you hear about the school having a secret cult starting in the girl’s restrooms? They say you can hear weird voices at night? Really? What do you mean it’s fake?!”

To be fair, this should be the normal teenage experince. But, that doesn’t happen. Well, it does; exccept, I don’t process it. Instead, the stuffs and talks and things all blend into an incomprehensible mumbling blur becasue there’s something louder in the back of my mind: the crippling shyness that always introduces chaos into the equation.

To be shy is to feel this anxiety, this lower mindset, this demon at the back of my mind telling me of all the horrible things that will happen if I start a conversation. You’ll make a fool of yourself. You’ll sound silly. You’ll get ignored. They won’t really like you. Of course, the solution is inner strength. Right? But, inner strength should not come in the form of a confident, resonating voice. Strength is not a man speaking up with his arms spread wide without fear.

Strength is not the absence of fear, but the overwhelming presence of it.

To be strong is to accept the beating of one’s own heart through their legs. It is to embrace the insidious second thoughts, and third thoughts, and fourth, and fifth –all regurgitations of the same fatal, fantastic flaw: that I am going to make a fool of myself. Yet, by some sheer act of irrationality, I persist. I persist despite knowing I’ll make a fool of myself. I persist despite the judgment, and despite the threat of failiure.

To be strong is to persist against all rational sensibilities knowing that one’s soul cries out with a thunderous sound and fury, “Stop! You imbecile! Stop this at once and save yourself the shame and guilt and judgment and wrath and anger and pride and…

…and it will go on. Shyness is quite loud like that. It will scream in wrath and fury to stop talking. Stop socializing. Keep yourself safe. Be safe and away from judgemnt.

But, over time, I’ve learned better. I’ve learned to accept the fear. To overcome my shyness, I accept being afraid, as it’s the only time I can truly be confident.”

Example College Essay About Being Shy

Why You May Need a College Essay Editor for This Topic.

Although writing about shyness in your college essay can be quite rewarding, it’s also very easy to mess up. Shyness and introversion is a common trait amongst students the age of 16-24, and antisocial patterns amongst students only increases as our modernizing society normalizes parasocial relationships.

Thus, you’ll be competing against a larger application pool with the same attributes as you. Make no mistake: writing about shyness in your college essay can still be a major advantage and impress admissions officers. The versatility of the topic makes it something that can be deconstructed in many creative ways; more often than not, you have a lot of ways to demonstrate your worth and strength when writing about shyness.

You’ll just need to write about it better than the rest of the admission pool.

With college admissions processes becoming more competitive with every passing year —especially amongst colleges in the US News and World Report’s top rankings— the holistic admissions process is becoming more important. It helps admissions officers distinguish between students past the numbers, grades, and test scores. Since so many students are already applying with fantastic marks, making a unique essay that stands out from the rest of the pool is now vital.

This is why having a professional college essay editor and writer help you with your essays is recommended. If you want to have a fighting chance at securing a seat at your dream schools, it is wise to consult the help of an expert.

It’s not worth risking the four years of hard work in high school just to not have to seek help. Or, if you’re a college student looking to apply as a transfer, it’s not worth risking your last chance at getting into your dream school.

If you’re looking for help with writing about shyness in your college essay, consider speaking with our expert college admissions essay editors and advisors. Schedule a free 30 minute consultation with us, and we will hold your hand through the writing and editing process to help you stand out from the rest of the admissions pool. Our experts have helped countless students get accepted into schools far more competitive than their academic range.