The ruffled prairie shirt. OMG. Also the knee-high striped socks. I was also a huge fan of knee-high tube socks when I was in 4th and 5th grade. And of course I had plastic glasses.

We would SO have been friends.

http://www.lawyerish.com/lawyerish/2007/01/the_ugly_chroni.html

VISOR!!! SOCKS!!! That is awesome!!

I too had the short goofy haircut. My poor mother didn’t know how to style it well, and of course neither did I at that young. And I had the middle part. I have a whole series of school pictures that make me cringe.

And the ruffled shirt? My mom used to make my shirts way back then. And I do believe she made one almost exactly like this. Ha!

Dude. You are brave, and I love you. And give me back my glasses, betch, for I am blind without them.

Priceless

I’m too young, I guess, at 29 to know what a Dorothy Hamill haircut is (google makes it look like a wedge of parmesan cheese). But WTH is up with the BOY HAIRCUT? I had those brown glasses, too.

As for style, you know what they say about glass houses and whatnot. I rocked some MC Hammer pants in the early ’90s. That I made myself. (Guess I should rethink the boy haircut comment considering my curls were in an afro or pyramid shape until 7th grade).

Oops. That sounded snarkier than intended. You is adorable. You knows it.

The visor-socks picture is just….awesome! Add some roller skates and I have a picture just like it. The rest of the pics are just too cute, and such a montage of the horrible youth haircuts/fashion trends that were FORCED on us in the 70s/80s.

You & JB=too cute. At the risk of sounding like a bad pick-up line, you just get more beautiful with age.

Thanks for postin’.

OMG…please post MORE! I could seriously look at these all day long!!!!!!!!!

I had a polished rock necklace like that, too.

I had those glasses too. And some pre-orthodontia receding-chin-from-overbite. I didn’t have the short haircut, but I was rocking some awesome feathering that bordered on mullet and/or a really godawful perm along with my mom glasses, unfortunate pastels, and rainbow accessories.

Is it rude to say that you are so much hotter now, than you were in your 20’s? You didn’t look bad then, but compared to how you look now?
Also, JB is so cute in that picture!

Ah, The Awkward Years. Did anyone notice the sandals with the striped socks and visor? Awesomeness! LOL I’ve been there, sister.

I must confess that I too had awful glasses, but I went for the boyish ones that darkened in the sun. Let me tell ya, THAT made for some great pictures.

Oh, and the 80s. Wow. I lived in So Cal, Land of the Big Hair, and hoo boy.

Thanks for sharing Linda. It was a lovely little trip down memory lane. :)

Oh, good lord. We must be the same age, as your pictures mirror my formative years in glaring hi-def detail. The huge plastic glasses? Check. The completely dorky hairstyle in mid-elementary school? Check. The horrible checkered, frilly blouses? Check. The costumed photos commemorating dance recitals? Check. The slow transfer to what passed for eighties cool in jr. high? Check. Gradually starting to look better in high school (after braces for 18 months)? Check. The LOOOOOOOOOONG, dyed hair in late teens? Check. Slight goth phase (although mine never really got past black eyeliner and purple lipstick)? Check.

Did you ever wear knickers when they were popular, circa 1983-84? I did, and they were PINK CORDOUROY!!!! Not sure how I survived my intense coolness back then, but I must’ve somehow.

Okay, I can totally live with the striped knee socks, but OMG you WORE THEM WITH SANDALS?!?!? Did you also have a pair of rollerskates with the little pom-poms tied to the laces, because I can totally see you in that outfit with rollerskates.

Love the pix. Why do we all get those horse teeth so soon?! We don’t grow into them until we’re 14 or 15.

Oh, and thanks for the ON-J Xanadu song that will be stuck in my head all. frigging. day.

Aaaahhhhh! I had those SAME coke-bottle glasses, the same short haircut, and the same wonky big teeth. Round about 3rd, 4th grade? I think the shirt I was wearing was argyle, though. Seriously, it’s weeeeird. I may have to dig through my own photo albums to prove it to you.

Thank you for this very charming post! Also, I think you look really pretty with dark auburn hair. It looks great with your skin and eyes. :-)

I loved this. Linda, you are so brave to post these photos. I am so horrified at the various awkward phases that I went through that I’m not sure I could do it. You are awesome!!

I think the cake had a basket of severed fingers on top?

Ruffled shirt? I had that too. Knee high socks? Check, but not as cute as yours.

At least you can see a progression of awkward to hot – mine went awkward, ok looking, downhill.

Best photos ever, though. More!

Another one with the same exact glasses in 3rd/4th-ish grade.

I cannot believe how DIFFERENT you look with the long, dark hair! Are you positive that’s you in that flowery dress? You look like your own Nazarene country cousin!

Oh wow, your awkward phase was bad. I almost feel better about my awkward phase completely with mother-made dresses, Dorothy Hamill hair and braces. I said almost.

And are those coraled plastic pigs on your cake?

Holy cow that shit was funny.

OMG I LOVE IT!!!! Thanks for sharing.

(And PS, it looks like a pigpen cake to me. Pigpen. Nice.)

wow, I’m like 3 years older than you, and I had so many of these same (awful) looks! The boy haircuts, the crazy shirts… but I was never brave enuf to wear socks like that. It’s awesome to see how far you have come.

Oh my God, I haven’t laughed that hard in a while. Not laughing at YOU, of course, but at hilarity of the fashions of the 80s. I also had those glasses, but mine said “Annie” on the side because they were in the “Little Orphan Annie” line. WTF? Also had that ruffled plaid shirt and short feathered hair. Dear lord, my mother took my brother and I to Sears for portraits when I had that haircut, and the photographer called me a boy. I’m not sure I’ve ever recovered. The matronly floral dresses – yup, been there, done that. I would never have known that one was you – I see no similarity at all!

I think my favorite was not only the striped knee socks, but also the fact that you were totally rocking the socks with those sandals – those HIGH heeled sandals. Had them too. Lord help us.

I totally agree with the wife #6 of the religious sect leader. That so doesn’t look like you though!

Don’t forget to get the kids their diptet in addition to the orthodontia! Otherwise they develop lockjaw and nightvision.

i had those same glasses. and add 20 lbs consistently and give me good teeth (thank god) and we could have been twins. of a sort.

thanks for sharing, those photos made me wince and laugh in sympathy and rememberance at the same time.

OMG. The visor and socks! LMAO. You were so cute!! I can’t believe how different you look with long hair. Wow!
I had the thick glasses, and they were red, like sally jesse raphael. oh god. how embarrassing. And retainers. I was the PICTURE OF BEAUTY, i tell ya!
Yeah, JB looks about 12. That’s so funny!
Thanks for sharing!

These pictures are awesome. My favorite is the frumpy-dress one–it seems like a photo of a completely different person. A humorless, dowdy doppelgänger who is NOT AMUSED.

My mom has a ton of blackmail-quality photos of me stashed away somewhere. I should ask her to burn them. Or to give them to me so I can post them online.

P.S.: SO CUTE OMG is right. It’s still applicable now, from what I can see. You’re a cute couple then and now.

Wow. I just…wow. This is possibly the best/worst collection of ye olde photos ever. I’ve looked exactly the same since about fourteen on, so I’m sort of jealous of all you wild and crazy chameleon types.

Every time I read your blog, I fall in love a little bit more. Please consider moving east and becoming my new best friend. We can hang out at Target and buy fabric softener together. It will be AWESOME.

Eugene Levy called, he wants his eyebrows back
OMG!!! LOLOLOLOL!!!

I LOVE looking at old photos! So fun.

JB does look like he’s about 12 in that last picture, I’d guess you to be 13. Cradle robber, you.

I freakin’ love it. I just went on a similar walk down memory lane. I’m moving and cleaning out all my stuff, which means I’m uncovering pictures I haven’t looked through since my last move. My painfully awkward stage apparently lasted a LOT longer than I thought it did. I’m talkin’ early 20s. Sad, but true. How did I even have boyfriends in college?? Oh, and I’m not kidding. I had those SAME GLASSES. Hot.

You are awesome. Ditto what Leeann said up there, except you’d have to move to Texas. Come on… Cheap real estate!

I am older than you, so my trip down memory lane was a bit longer, but still funny. Actually just brought an old yearbook to work because a co-worker and I discovered we were in jr. high together.
Oh my god….thank you for sharing! It’s hysterical how dorky we were in our youth and yet we thought we were so cool!!!!

Well, THAT was fun!

And. . excuse me. . . but you and J.B. look like a TOTAL of 24 years on the last picture.

This just made my day. My husband makes fun of my “awkward years” photos ALL THE TIME (he tends to forget his pink-shirt-wearing, skaterboy, mullet years…), and it’s so nice to see that other people have similar pictures. In fact, those glasses in the 6th picture? (I think it was the 6th…) Yeah. Pretty sure I had the same ones. Is it just me, or is it mothereffing child abuse to make a kid wear those?

Oh, and the one of you at 20 doesn’t look like you at all. Till I read the caption, I was going, “Now, who is this person?”

That was fun! Thanks for letting us see!

I’ve been lurking here for years and it took these pics to make me comment…holy crap that was awesome. That’s really all I have to say. Besides the you’re awesome and talented and shit. You obviously are. But these pics rock. Thanks for sharing with the world.

I’m bad at comments. Will probably get back to lurking in the shadows. But your writing cheers me up all the time.

I find the FLDS compound wife one is the best. Is your tattoo lurking under those modesty sleeves?

This was so awesome. Thank you for sharing. I had that rainbow heart necklace, and also very similar teeth. The striped-socks outfit is definitely the winner if you ask me!

I laughed, I cried. I had that same denim jacket with the poofy sleeves in the 80s. So reassuring to know that on the other side of the country, dwelled a fellow dork, all this time. I was not alone.

Best. Post. EVER.

WHOA.

Looking at the crazy teeth, plaid prairie dress, androgynous hair and nuts glasses is like looking into a mirror. Shudder. What an awkward age! You turned out just fine though so at least you can look back on those times and laugh!

That. Was. Awesome.

The retro photos get me every time.

Loved this *SO MUCH*, and you are totally cool for posting those.

Is that a pig corral made from a plastic strawberry container on that cake? Go Linda’s Mom: mad skills from the pre-Martha Stewart days!

I totally had that dance costume as a kid, too. And the blue eyeshadow.

Now that is sad.
Ha, just kidding… isn’t it amazing the huge amount of difference in all the years. I need to find some old pics while I am at my mom’s. You have inspired me to find embarrassing pictures of myself. Thank you.

Linda, I don’t know how you do it but you always come up with the best posts. This was awesome, it made me laugh out loud (as do most of your posts).

Same glasses (think I had Sophia Lauren frames- oh so hip), same prairie shirt, same bad, short, feathered hair and same damn orthodontist’s wet-dream smile. In high school, I went with a similar hair style, more Modern English than Flock of Sea Gulls. Oh yeah, it was something!