Less Is More
Less is more is what my father would say.
Puberty was late almost absent for me as i watched my friends in grade school begin their journey. Dating myself for sure as i write this sentence but here it goes. During second period while the film strip was going there was always one girl in the class who seemed to catapult into puberty.
I envied this girl with her boobs that seemed to pop right out of her tight disco duck shirt, her long black mascara laden eyelashes and we wont get into the lip gloss. I had that same disco duck shirt, mine laid flat across my flat chest. I remember thinking all i needed was some time to get there.
This girl who i looked up to could always be seen sucking face with the cutest boy in the class. I wanted to be that girl. What was wrong with me.
I was 12 and this was the summer i felt everything would change. I would grow boobs, fill out my disco duck shirt and finally I could be the one the boys wanted to grope during the film strip. I checked every day to see if growth had occurred usually, it was just a cold room a false alarm not enough for a bra let alone cleavage. Summers we would visit my grandparents in Florida. I remember this particular summer i felt different.
I must have looked different, as this was the day my mother said yes to makeup. As silly as it sounds this day was life changing for me at 12.
My blonde eyelashes would be forever changed once introduced to Maybeline Mascara. I wouldn’t know then that that little pink and green tube and I would be lifelong friends. My mother said yes to mascara.
I remember being excited but scared i might put it on wrong and poke my eye out. Visiting my grandparents was the perfect time, as my father couldn’t get too mad, he would always seem nicer when we were around his parents. My mother put the mascara on me. I instantly felt mature new different. I was afraid to go show my father. He inititially blew up. I can’t
recall exactly what he said but it was something to the effect that i looked cheap like a hooker, that it was too much and he didn’t want me looking like that. Looking back most fathers wouldn’t want there daughters to look like that. I remember being so upset and he shot down me wearing make up
which could really affect me hooking up with that boy during the filmstrip.
My mother calmed him down. I really will never know what she said to him, but whatever it was changed everything.
My father changed his tone and said you can wear it but just remember
“Less is more “ It would take me years to really understand what he meant but i would wear mascara from that day forward, not alot and i certainly didn’t have the boobs to go with it but I always thought i looked better in my disco duck shirt with just a little bit of mascara
