8x the biggest teenage beauty misses
Is it just me, or do kids nowadays skip a kind of phase? It seems like they go straight from ‘cute child’ to ‘young adult’. That whole ridiculous teenage in-between phase just doesn't happen anymore. When I taught at high school, for example, my students looked older than I did. They all drank cappuccino, well, I definitely didn't do that back then. How can this be? Maybe kids are maturing faster due to social media, as they can follow all the trends closely. In any case, I'm glad I experienced the awkward in-between phase, complete with a pink flip phone and Sony camera. I wouldn't have wanted to miss that for anything. But to be fair: there were also some misses during this period that today's teenagers won't make as quickly. I'm happy to share them with you.
1. Colored braces
Invisible braces didn't exist when I was fifteen. I found that far from a problem, because it was actually super cool to have braces. Brackets, that is, an outside brace was definitely not what you wanted. Secretly, I was quite happy when I heard from the dentist that I had to wear brackets for a year. The more colors in your mouth, the better, so I chose different colors every month at the orthodontist. I even had red and green brackets for Christmas once. That can't be right? It looked terrible, of course. Nowadays, I would prefer to burn the photos from this period, but I keep them for when I'm feeling down.
2. Dream Matte Mousse
This was the foundation when I was in high school. Supposedly a very airy and ‘invisible’ variant, but in practice, it was a sticky substance that was quite visible on your face. Often there was also a dirty sponge included that you of course never cleaned. Not really beneficial for a teenage skin, you would say.
3. Waffle iron
And I don't mean the modern waffle iron for nice waves, but the diehard waffle iron that absolutely had no heat protector. It was just two iron plates that burned your hair badly. A cloud of smoke would linger when you went to town with this tool. But hey, Christina Aguilera had waffle hair, so we had to.
4. The zigzag parting
I believe I find this even worse than the waffle iron. The zigzag parting was quite difficult to create yourself and was therefore a highly requested style that you submitted to your hairdresser. Then, of course, you would try to not wash your hair for as long as possible to shine with your zigzag parting.
5. Blue eyeshadow
Blue eyeshadow was definitely a thing, preferably with a little shimmer in it. The one from L'Oréal was perfect for that. Eyeliner and mascaras in this color were also trendy. Secretly, I would like to wear this again, I'm curious if I still think it's that cool.
6. Spider lashes
The thicker the mascara, the better. That was the motto back then. Natural? No way, people had to see that you were allowed to wear mascara, and you did this by applying five layers on top of each other. You didn't really care that your lashes fell out one by one because of this.
7. Thin eyebrows
I can't forget this classic, again inspired by Christina. I'm just so glad my hairs have grown back. Let's hope this trend doesn't come back. Never again.
8. Eyeliner IN your eyes
By now we know that we can apply eyeliner above our eyes to make our gaze appear wider. However, this was not the case when I started with eyeliner. I didn't even apply it on the top, but only on the bottom. And worse: I applied it IN my eyes, on that edge. When I look back at photos of this, I see a kind of very sad panda bear. This look really did nothing for my face, except that I looked terrifying.
