I'm having some trouble stretching my ears?

The issue with acrylic is that it's porus, which means that along with harboring bacteria, it's more likely to adhere to your skin. And acrylic has tons of chemicals that're very bad for you body in it, which will leach out.

Acrylic tapers aren't so bad as long as you use them correctly (although I do prefer surgical steel or glass). Which means stretch your ear then put the jewelry in. Tapers are not jewelry and should not be wore as jewelry. You need appropriate jewelry and you need it now.

Right now you'll want captive bead ring or circular barbells, the holes aren't big enough for plugs or tunnels yet. But when you get to that point you can find them of appropriate material at any local piercing shop, as well as online. My favorite website for all things body mod: www.painfulpleasures.com

Do not buy your jewelry at Hot Topic! Most of the plugs are acrylics, and the ones that aren't are of horrible quality.

As for how fast you stretch, yes it does somewhat depend on your body. But you should wait about 3 weeks (2 is pushing it) in the smaller sizes (a month would be better), as you get into the single digits, you'll need to wait longer, a month and a half, two, if you get into really big sizes, even longer But withing the appropriate time range, the most important thing is to listen to your body. If it's been 3 weeks since your last stretch, and you're trying to go up a size, but it hurts a lot, or won't go in without excessive force, stop, it hasn't been long enough yet. Stretching shouldn't be any more than uncomfortable, if you feel pain you're going too fast.

You may also want to try a method known as taping if you can't get the tapper through, even if it's been two, three months. Get some teflon or bondage tape, wrap one layer around the jewelry you have in every week. This will stretch the piercing very slowly and gently.

Acrylic cannot be sterilized, and yes, it does tend to harbor more bacteria then metal jewelry does. It is not meant for fresh stretches/piercings.

Depends. If your ear feels ok after two weeks, you can try to stretch it. But, if it doesn't go in easily, you need to give it more time. Longer is always better in terms of stretching.

I've bought jewelry from tribalectic.com before & haven't had a problem. But any local tattoo shops should have jewelry as well. Another site you could look into would be bodyartforms.com