They just wanted to stand out because they didn't want to fit in what Avery considered to be "robots" and conform, and they were well versed in history and how scary it is to disassociate and forget who you are, is as it happened to them before. To avoid that, as they entered middle school, Avery began to listen to metal grunge and punk music and began wearing ripped jeans, crop tops and they colored and dyed their hair frequent colors and sometimes Avery even shaved part of her hair off to the point of only having it barely being there for mostly visual and sensory reasons in addition to wanting to stand out. Avery was a full-blown punk and goth. Also, Avery loved punk culture and loved it after seeing one of their friends wear that style, that encouraged Avery to "liberate" themselves and their body, and Avery's parents were OK with them wearing those types of clothing as Avery's parents just like Avery were non-binary and Avery became non-binary at age 12 and before that Avery still considered themselves to be female and preferred she/her pronouns until 12.
