fedoras, feather earrings, and shame

Ahh, the transition from Childhood into Adolescence. a delightfully horrifying and humbling experience. 

It consists of three stages.
Being a child.
Being a pre-teen.
Being a full fledged teenager, complete with angst and eye rolls.

With each stage, I've had a style. Not style, but I certainly had a style. 

Before we begin, here's some references where I did not dress myself.

Not a great example, but hey. A typical outfit.

A cute blouse!

A regular shirt from Old Navy!

Another flow-y blouse!

A regular Kid outfit!

And so it begins.
I started to dress myself around five years old.

Ready to be the Alpha of my Kindergarten class.

Then it evolved, oh, did it evolve.

Added this one mostly for the DS gaming system.

WARNING: CROCS AHEAD

There were many sweater vests. (crazy hair day)

And then, the "A" chain stores. Abercrombie and Fitch, Aeropostale, Hollister, American Eagle, it's what all of the cool kids wore.

I made that bag. I chose that fabric.

And BOOM FEDORA. Fedoras and long chain necklaces (such as the ones they always sold at Down East) were popular, by me. 

I should also mention, this Fedora was from Claires. Also where I bought all of my jewelry. All. 

This next picture is terrifying, and I'm adding it solely so you can look at my pants. Remember "Miss Me" Jeans? I do. I will never forget. Bedazzled pants with white embroidery thread used as stitching was all the rage. All at the low price of like, $50.

Also, I used to wear a lot of cardigans over Shade and DownEast white tank tops.

Then it got really, really, bad.

This was the time in my life when I was most uncomfortable with myself. Not so surprisingly, the Junior High/ Middle School years. 

"Is that really Hanna?" Sure is! Wearing a shawl from Kohls, that I remember begging for because my very pretty and popular friend had one. Complete with dangly earrings, a Hollister tank top(that was much too big for me), and a necklace from Aeropostale. 

I didn't really know what fashion was. I just knew that all of the famed kids at my school wore Hollister, and so I needed to as well. 

Hollister dress! I felt uncomfortable with the length of it. Dare I have to bend down.

I don't have a lot of pictures of this time due to me not even liking how I looked. 

A long lost trend, feather earrings.
(I hear they're making a comeback?)

Neon and overdone side swept bangs.

A Hollister shirt! And Miss Me jeans!

My staple piece, you ask?

Well in light of 2011(ish) being the time for "randomness" and weird quirks, my personal touch quickly became cats. 

Cat leggings! Cat Sweaters! 

ft. a Hollister tank top.

I have two shirts like this. The other stating, "Crazy Cat Lady".

Not that I don't like cats, but that wasn't really the point. The point was that people would have something that linked to me. I had friends on Pinterest always sending me things about cats, and I was honoured.

It was my first year of high school, ninth grade, that I began to have style, not just a style. It still wasn't great, but it was definitely appropriate for 2013/2014. 

I actually literally have no pictures from ninth grade. It was definitely the peak of my being uncomfortable with myself. But I actually started to feel a sense of self. It was the beginning of my self-discovery. 

I no longer wore things from teen chain stores, rather I took things that were from Banana Republic and Loft from my mom's closet. I wore what I liked, and what I felt most comfortable in. 

Everything has been smooth since. 

Now I pretty much wear whatever I want, and I love it.

Fashion used to be such a burden for me. I liked it, but the pressure of wearing the wrong thing was always there, and I always ended up trying too hard. 

During childhood, you dress for no one.

During pre-teen years, you dress for others.

During your teen years, you dress for yourself.

Thanks for looking at embarrassing pictures with me.

Also, if you have any bad pictures of yourself where you've dressed up on your own, I WANT TO SEE.

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