Do We Really Care What Other People Think?

The question is: Do we really care what other people think about us? Well a lot of people do. One of my friends changed her whole life because she was told by her peers/ so called friends that her personality needs to change and so does her clothes. She went against her beliefs and she did some things that a girl her age shouldn't be doing but I made sure that she didn't get too out of hand. I didn't even know who she was anymore. Before she changed, we used to talk on the phone everyday and we would gossip and talk about the average teen things but when she made her change, I barely heard from her and at school, she was distant. She honestly cared what other people thought of her and she tried to change herself. Now that this is all over, she realized how crazy she was and she apoligized to me for the way she acted. Her so called "friends" left her behind and she came running back to me. Some people said that I shouldn't have taken her back as my friend but I took her back because I cared enough about her and I knew that she would soon come back to her senses. I know that when teens reach the age of 13, they change and they do listen to their peers a lot. My friend was just going through that stage and I was just smart enough to handle peer pressure. Now that we are older, we laugh about what she did. She feels kind of embarrased when we talk about it but she thanks me all the time for saving her and making sure that she didn't do anything too crazy that could have cost her her life. We do sometimes care what other people think about us but we shouldn't try to change ourselves just to be accepted. We also need caring friends to steer us in the right direction and make sure that we know how we are acting