Being scared and admitting it is braver than pretending you’ve got no fear and freezing anyway.

Fear that gets said out loud becomes something you can work with, while fear that stays hidden runs things from behind. Pretending it is not there burns energy you need for the actual thing, and leaves you alone with it, which makes it bigger. Courage was never the absence of the feeling. It is the ordinary business of doing something while the feeling is present.

Tell one person before the thing you are dreading, plainly rather than as a joke. Naming it usually takes it down a size. If fear is stopping you regularly, tell an adult you trust, and know it is not a failure of nerve.