Being shy and self conscious:(

Hello, sorry I haven't posted in a while. This post doesn't really have anything to do with beauty, but certain small aspects of it does so I thought I would write a blog post about it.
I, like many people am extremely shy. I have held back from so many good opportunities because of my shyness. Sometimes I really hate it. I get especially shy around new people, or even people I've known for ages, but have rarely spoken too. For example, I'm 14, so I'm still in school, and will be for the next couple of years, I hate having to do any sort of speaking in front of the class, especially if the class has over 20 people in it,which most of mine do. I get extremely nervous, and always go bright red even if I know what I am about to do will be right/good, depending on what I'm doing. I'm not so bad if I have a few people up there with me, but as I'm getting older, for certain GCSE subjects we have to do speeches, for up to 5 minutes, on our own. As anyone else like me could imagine, my worst nightmare. Being this shy could even effect some of my grades!
Also, I'm very self conscious. I've got to a point now that I often feel extremely embarrassed with some aspects of myself. I especially hate non uniform days at school. My family aren't the richest of people, so we have little money to spend on clothes. I often can't wear clothes from shops such as river island or topshop because one clothing item would probably be my whole months allowance gone. Recently at my school we've had three non uniform days in the last month and a bit. You get judged if you wear the same thing twice, I just hate it. Thank god in the uk we wear uniform. I know most American and European schools don't wear a uniform, I would hate school if I went to a non uniform one.
But my personality completely changes when I'm with friends and family, I'm a completely different person. Everybody I'm friends with even say I change. But that's just me, I can't help it. And you know what gets me? When you get a report from your teacher and it says 'Phoebe is a very clever girl, but she is extremely shy and doesn't contribute much to the class.' I HATE it, teachers are basically saying that because you're shy,you aren't doing as well. But that is just MY personality! Yes, I'd love to be able to be confident and answer questions, and be a main part in a play. But I can't, and that's just me!
Recently, I've learnt to accept this, and become more confident with who I am. How dare someone else say if you were louder, you would do better? I can't help with who I am, so deal with it!
However, I am so glad that I chose to take Art and Graphics, I'm in very small classes, mostly with around 10 people, who the majority of them I'm either friends with, or have talked to and got to know them a bit. I'm so much more confident in those classes, and they've helped me get braver over the past six months.
This post was a very deep one, but I just wanted to get my point across, any shy people will understand what I'm saying! Don't be afraid to be shy, it's just who you are and you shouldn't change for anybody.
Thanks for reading, please, if there's anyone who wants some advise, or could even give me some, please comment, or even email me at phoebesnails@gmail.com
Thanks for reading!
Phoebe:)
Oh, and by the way...