Freaks? Sure. Outcasts? Nah.

In high school I was part of the nerdy mallgoth weeaboo social group, and got it in my head that the noble thing to do was to try and befriend some of the outcast kids, since we were pretty accepting and way more tolerant of certain behaviors or interests that might get people labeled "awkward" or "weird." So I tried to make friends with a lot of kids who seemed like outsiders and every single time there was a reason why they had outcasts to begin with.

Typically it was that they didn't understand boundaries in some way--they were creepy, or they were clingy, or they would assume high levels of emotional intimacy that were not reciprocated, things like that, and rarely responded well (if at all) when asked to stop. Often they had very high emotional needs, higher than your average ninth-grader could give them. My friend group and I also had a lot of trouble trying to end things with the "outcast kids" after they'd exhausted our goodwill--you can only try to get people to course-correct so many times. I literally can't think of a single person that I was like "wow I'm really glad I got to know them, they were really cool after all."

As an adult I'm part of a lot of alternative hobby and lifestyle communities, and "look alternative" myself so I'm no stranger to "freaks." But these days if someone is being excluded it's generally easier (and tbh safer) for me to assume there's a reason for that, and keep to myself.