Once Upon A Time...

Hey everyone!

I've been thinking a lot, recently, about my past selves. Just thinking about how much I've grown as a person and how my style has changed so many times throughout the years. Seriously, I did "goth", punk, "skater", prep, emo, theatre kid, otaku, visual-kei, lolita, etc...

I was looking at my old yearbooks. Good gravy. What the heck was I thinking? I'm sure that many of us think that. Of course, those are the years where we're still trying to find ourselves. Then again...we're always evolving...at this point I'm just rambling. lol

Anyways, because I'm comfortable with laughing at myself, I felt like sharing some embarrassing photos of my youth. I dove into the dark underworld of myspace and retrieved a few gems. XD It's interesting to see it all together.

Middle school. Oh middle school. I wore..whatever. lol From grade 6-7, it was just whatever. In grade 8, I wore a lot of those shirts, vests, and jackets that had silly things written on them. Things like "princess" and "angel". hahahaha

In high school, I was into the goth/punk scene. lol I had friends that wore the big pants from Hot Topic. Y'know the ones. The ones with the straps all over the place that serve no purpose? Black nail polish was a must. Guys wore heavy eyeliner and everyone wore fishnet. We listened to Kittie, Godsmack, Korn, and Good Charlotte. lol

2004-ish

At then end of my sophomore year, I tried out for cheerleading and made the JV squad. I know, right? How do you go from goth wannabe to cheerleader? IDK. I just remember the cheerleaders coming to my middle school and thinking, "I wanna do that when I'm in high school." I've also just got a thing for uniforms. I love uniforms. lol That led to my preppy transition. Or at least, my attempt at it. I only have one thing from Abecrombie, a jacket that I don't wear but still have. No pictures from that phase.

....derp.

In my junior year, I moved to a new high school. That meant that I had to quit cheer. I was actually pretty upset. Although, I wasn't a very good cheerleader, I enjoyed it.

At my new school, scene and emo kids were prevalent. It was only natural that I gravitated towards their style. This was also the time that I discovered photoshop and the magic of filters. I went a little filter/brush crazy and thought that I was soooo cool. /screams

Where the hell did my nose go?? D:

Photoshop maaaagic LOL 2005-2006

In my senior year, I was really into 80's music and collecting buttons/pins. I had so many and now I don't know where most of them are. lol Got my labret pierced around this time, too. 

I'm actually really thankful that my family and I moved. I loved my new school because, there, I found a passion for theatre. <3 Too bad I didn't just start high school at that place. I would've loved to have been able to participate in more productions with my theatre family. (^ u^)

2006

I played Abigail Williams once. Funny story. I had participated in a program called Junior Works. Some of us volunteered to work with children and direct them in short plays. One of the kids I directed got a little attached to me. I was told that she didn't want to come see me in The Crucible, because she didn't want to see me being mean. haha D'awwww. 

2006

I also played Glinda in my school's production of The Wiz. 

That dress is actually my 8th grade formal dress and I STILL have it. lol 

Starting college, I was REALLY into visual-kei. If you ask my old roomies about it, they'd probably laugh and tell you about my Miyavi "shrine." I had so many posters. Still do, but the only thing I have up right now is a giant Miyavi wall scroll. I loved oshare-kei bands more than the hardcore stuff, but I was also really into almost any band under PSC. I also really liked bands like Psycho le Cemu, An Cafe, and Charlotte. 

R.I.P. Kazuno <3

Yep. I got to see S.K.I.N. during their first and last, one and only, gig at Anime Expo.

I saw MUCC and D'espairsRay at Taste of Chaos with one of my roomies. I wish that I'd known more about makeup and wigs at the time. I really don't like the way I looked. /sigh 

There was also this weird point, early college, where I tried to look more Asian. LOL

Lolita Days...
I'd known about lolita for a few years before I was able to attempt the style. We're not going to talk about my ita days and how I tried to be a lolita for Halloween once in high school /internalscreaming...thankfully, I don't have any photos from those days. lol That's probably the one thing that I'm not comfortable sharing. Anywho, I started working and was finally able to afford lolita stuff. :) Here are a few pics from when I started to later. I don't wear lolita much these days, the last time was at a meetup from last year.

That petticoat was all kinds of ridiculous. Too poofy for my tastes. 

2007-ish?

2011

These days, I'm more into being casual. I don't really dress up anymore. The only time I do is for cons, meetups, or special occasions. It's kind of sad. I had a lot more motivation and felt a lot freer to do so when I lived in the city. I live in a the middle of nowhere now and I'm a little wary of standing out too much. My boyfriend calls this place a butthole. lol Once, I wore casual lolita out here and it was the most awkward feeling ever. IDK. I'm also pretty lazy and it takes me ages to get ready. Also, I've stopped following the fashion. I've started to gravitate more towards trying out gyaru styles. I've got a long way to go with gyaru, but I get a little bit better with each attempt. 

Moving alooong... 

Here's another set of pics. I saw Johnny Yong Bosch at Anime Expo in 2007 and again in 2010. 

2007

2010

Lastly, here's a few pictures are how my style has been recently (when I'm not lazing around in jeans, tees, and hoodies haha).

2012-2013

Lastly, the most recent picture of myself. Taken while I was working on my Geo Fresh Brown review. 

Lots of changes. I feel that I've gotten girlier and I feel a lot better about my makeup application. It's actually thanks to cosplay that I've learned so much...from wigs, to lenses, to false lashes. I've learned a lot about enhancing aspects of myself and I feel a lot more confident about the way that I look. Thanks to lolita, I've learned about properly coordinating and dressing to suit my body. 

It's really cool to see how one has transformed throughout the years. Let me know if you do a timeline! What have you learned? What's changed the most? I'd love to see it! I might do a lolita timeline at some point. :) 

Thanks for reading <3