The Centers for Disease Control and other leading public health organizations have declared adolescent obesity a growing epidemic in the United States. Rising adolescent obesity rates coincide with the growing epidemic of stigmatization and teasing based on weight and size among adolescents. Several studies on weight-based teasing have found slight differences in reporting rates across racial and ethnic groups. For this study, I hypothesize that variation in reporting rates across racial and ethnic groups are due to differences in how individuals of different races perceive ‘teasing’ behaviors. To test this hypothesis, I constructed a questionnaire to measure adolescent students’ perceptions of teasing behavior, as well as self-esteem to be administered, after further development, to middle school students in Iowa using convenience sampling. The results are intended to illuminate the extent to which individual differences in reporting rates occur across racial and ethnic groups.