I’m going to be brutally honest. When I was younger, I was flat out hideous. I was a solid foot taller, about 35 pounds thicker, and I was sporting a massive gap in my teeth that kind of looked like I was missing a tooth altogether. Through middle school, I would listen to all of my friends telling their thrilling stories of holding hands with boys, getting a new pair of jeans from Hollister, of course in a size 0, and all of the other perks that come to the girls that were naturally born with the popular girl gene.
Fastforward to high school, when I dropped 30 pounds, finally got my braces off and was presentable to the public. I was fiercely devoted to smothering my face with as much bronzer as it could hold, gluing insanely thick eyelashes on each morning, and teasing my hair so high I had to avoid sitting near the front of class so people could see around me. I could never understand the girls that were totally fine coming to school without even swiping on some mascara. Better yet, why did all of the boys pay more attention to them than me…? Hello, couldn’t you tell I wasn’t so scary looking anymore?
I share this horror story with you to give you a little insight as to why appearance is so imortant to me these days. Now that I’m in my 20’s, I look back and laugh at how hard I tried. Clipping in extensions, painting my skin orange and outlining my eyes thicker than a 90’s rock band frontman was getting me attention alright…
In all honesty, I still have a huge passion for hair and makeup. I think that waking up in the mornings and getting to combine new eyeshadows or lip shades is one of the funnest parts of being a woman. I also truly believe that waking up and adding some makeup and, occasionally attempting (and usually failing miserably) at some Pinterest hair tutorials, gives you so much more confidence, and how can you go wrong there? There is always a happy medium, you just have to find it and run with it! If that means a few awkward years with no makeup followed by a few with way too much, so be it.
*Pictures above – I have learned to start loving my short hair! But sometimes, extensions are fun. As you can see, the bronzer is much more minimal than in my high school days.*
