Throwback Thursday: A Bob and Blazer Made Me Look Like a Grownup, Right?

When I was younger, all I wanted to do was look older. Now, I'm sure that's something most kids want. But in my case, I looked SO YOUNG. Blame it on my height, blame it on my baby face, blame it on a combination of both ... but I was constantly being mistaken for a 13 year old well into my 20s. And when I WAS 13? I just wanted to look like I was in college. Enter the blazer and bob you see here.

When I was in 7th grade, I definitely went through a blazer phase. (I repeated that phase at 25, but that's neither here nor there.) I had a huge selection of blazers that I would break out for every occasion, whether it was a regular day at school or a piano recital. The outfit above was what I decided to wear to my 13th birthday party. What was cooler than a blazer and leggings, right? Especially when they were paired with matching earrings and braces with coordinated rubber bands.

I had also recently bobbed my hair in an effort to age myself up a bit. (Honestly, I was just really tired of being offered the kids' menu at restaurants.) This wasn't my first time with a bob, and I'm sure it won't be my last -- though the fact that I (finally) have long hair is a major coup. The swept to the side bangs are a vestige of the sprayed-to-the-sky bangs of the late 80s.

But here's the thing. Once I reached my 20s, ALL I WANTED TO DO WAS LOOK YOUNGER. Now I'm furious/terrified/scared/sad if I don't get carded at a bar, irrationally worried that my time-in-a-bottle-please-don't-disappoint-me-now moisturizer has stopped working. It's so funny to me how this shift occurred, pretty much overnight. Definitely gone are the days when all I wanted to do was look older. (It was a simpler time.)

And yes, that blazer has a print of clocks on the lapels. That was very cool back in 1993.