Radvent day 18: style

As anyone who has ever met me can tell you, I am not stylish. Or rather, I was born without a natural sense for what its like to dress hip, classy or trendy. This isn't a bad thing, but it does explain why I have a hard time fitting in with "cool kids." But I think I am pretty much over that now, thank goodness.

I've come to realize in the last year just how much influence three particular fictional characters had on my style formation growing up, and hopefully you will find them amusing and/or thought-provoking:

• Clarissa Explains It All— I have to hand it to Clarissa. I watched this show in grade school, during some very formative years, and only upon watching it again as an adult this year did I realize just how much Clarissa's style influenced my own. Clashing contrasting patterns? Loud colors? Bizarre accessories & oddly crimped hair? Girl. You + me.
• Clueless—AMBULAR! I think all white girls my age were impacted by this movie, which came out when I had just started high school. I fully admit to going a tad insane with things at the time, which led to my nickname:The Fashion Victim. And that was from people who liked me.
• The Baby-Sitters Club—Another sign of the times.I always loved reading about what each personality in the BSC was wearing and what that said about who they were. I loved the way Claudia dressed, and dreamed of being so ridiculously funky & awesome that I had sushi earrings (still waiting for those, by the way) & ballet flats for every occasion. Of course, I always knew I was more like Kristy or Dawn. Sigh.

Just once, I would like to look the picture of trendsetting hipness, and see if it made a difference. Would people treat me differently? Would I act differently? Uiltimately, I guess it would make no positive difference, at least in how I see myself. And that's a good thing.