Irwin Altman and Dalmas Taylor developed the social penetration theory; the theory helps people understand human communication through closeness and self-disclosure. The book describes the theory of social penetration using the metaphor of the onion, known as the human personality, which is a multi-layered onion. The outer layer of the onion is known as the public self, people's personalities are easily rhetorically swapped with people who have met someone else immediately for the first time. For example, a person's gender, the way they dress, and occupation. The layer beneath the onion surfer is known as personal self and attitude. A person can only share information with someone closest to them, such as family and friends. For example, this semester, one of my classmates Brittany and I were working on a project together. She called me a "spoiled rich girl" because I told her a story about my pool and my pool man. This offended me because I may have grown up in a rich town, but I was never a “spoiled rich kid.” I told Brittany that I'm not a "spoiled rich kid" and she started pointing out all my stuff and asking me who bought it. I fell back into my seat and told my mother. He looked up from the computer screen and said, "SEE, you're a spoiled rich kid." What Brittany didn't know about me was that my mother was single and raised three children on her own. My mother had everything taken away from her, but with the support of her family and friends she made something of herself. I told Brittany my story, she learned not only about my story, but also that I started working at a very young age. Brittany just stared at me and started telling me her life story. I later found out that he has seven brothers and his father died very young. She also told me that she was once a “spoiled little rich girl,” but when her father died she lost everything and her family was left homeless. After communicating with each other for an hour, both of our perceptions of each other change. When Brittany left, she told me she was sorry she judged me