A recent conversation with a friend reminded me of this picture, evidence of my "awkward period". My friend's daughter is the same age as I was when I took this picture. She thinks she is "goofy looking". She of the beautiful, model-esque features and gazelle body, WHO ALSO plays some kick-ass baseball… in the boys league. Yeah.
Not that I would ever initiate this conversation, because I remember, oh how do I remember, what it was like at that age, but if this young lady ever brings up looking "goofy" in my presence, man! I will be whipping this photo out so fast.
Because really.
This picture was taken at my dentist's office right before I was told I needed braces. So add braces to the same picture for the next year and a half. (The general awkwardness lasted until I was… like… 28.) If you shoved my hair in a cap I looked like my brothers. Just so you know, I wore that green hoodie everywhere.
I thought I had burned all of these photos – no, I mean, I literally burned these pictures, my mom even helped, if that says anything – but this one was STILL IN MY DENTIST'S OFFICE! For 25 years this is the photo the entire office staff saw every time they opened my file.
I have this photo on my desk because it makes me laugh now. I mean, after getting over the general trauma that an extended gawky period causes anyone. And then, after I got over the new and improved mortification of learning this visage had been viewed every six months for 25 years by dental professionals.
Don't laugh too hard.
Oh OK, go ahead. – wg
OMG! I LOVE your rockin’ butterfly wing glasses…but I love the fact that this was still in your dental file all this time. That is classic! Also, your hair color in this photo is the color I have been trying to get for some time!
I have a collection of ugly photos, but the one that stands out always in my mind is the one where I’m wearing A FLANNEL SHIRT!! It gets worse. The sleeves are rolled up, and my god awful feather hair is super feathered, and I look like I just came from smoking a bowl at the park during open lunch with the high school stoners, but nope, I never touched the stuff. But even worse? I was also wearing chords! Lord, I was a heinous looking adolescent!
Hmmm, it wouldn’t have occurred to me to put a dentist’s office in a sauna…
I looked like a boy. So much so that when my mom registered me for junior high they put me in the boy’s p.e. class. I probably still could pass if I tried but my butt is definitely bigger than it was then. But still no boobs.
FADKOG – You know, that’s the color my hair reverts to every time I try to dye it something new. I’d give it to you if I could. I have a good decade of flannel shirts. Oversize ones. You can imagine how the look above just merged seamlessly into grunge. (I still kind of like flannel. I know, I’m hopeless!)
Evan – a sauna would explain that hair, wouldn’t it? Partly.
Carol – The figure I have took a LONG time to come in. I think the only reason I didn’t get mistaken for a boy more was because I was so small and scrawny looking. I was that kid everyone pushed through doggy doors when they got locked out of the house or lowered into drains when they lost their frisbees. (Ah, the 70s.)
I’m still going through my awkward period.
OMG – hilarious!!! I have a similar photo from 7th or 8th grade that my roommates had hanging on our refrigerator. I had glasses and braces and long frizzy hair held back by barrettes. Actually, yours is a lot better than mine! My roomates thought it was so funny, they put a note up with it saying: “Chelsea, there’s hope for you, she looks a lot better now!” (remember how bad Chelsea Clinton looked? I felt terrible for her that her awkward teenage years were on display for everyone!)
Whoa, if you click on your pic, it grows 93% larger. Nice. The tween years sucked for me. I didn’t ever wear braces, and I didn’t start wearing glasses until I was 22, but I had some jacked up hair, and the large nose that I have now, which I’m now fine with, was pretty much the same size back then, but my head was a lot smaller. F’d up, I tell yah.
Hello. Don’t ever take a fence down until you know the reason it was put up.
I am from Swaziland and now study English, give true I wrote the following sentence: “hair replacement and female and michigan.”
With love :o, Aderes.
I must say It is really funny picture,