Teenage Girls

Confession time.  I am addicted to a show for teenagers: Pretty Little Liars.  If you've never heard of it, it's probably because you're not 15.  And no, I'm not watching it as some sort of glimpse into the lives of the teenagers I work with.  Just something I found on Netflix.  Just free, cheap entertainment that totally wastes my time.  Just a guilty pleasure.  I watched one episode and suddenly I can't stop until I find out who killed Ali!

It's like a repeat of Twin Peaks, twenty years later. 

Just your average sixteen-year-olds?  Right.

There are many things that make me inwardly shake my head while watching these teenagers on screen (like the fact that they are all close to 30 in real life . . . ), but the thing that gets me the most is the fact that they are ALWAYS dressed to the nines.  Going to school?  Let me put on a dress and enough make-up for five people!  Going to a slumber party at a friend's house?  I'll put on my casual sweater/miniskirt/jacket combo!  Traipsing through the woods at night searching for clues to my best friend's killer?  I've got some designer boots with three-inch heels that are perfect for mystery-solving hikes!

Seriously.

I was looking at kids in the hallway today between classes, and I didn't see a single girl dressed like the teens on TV.  Rather than looking like they just stepped off a fashion show runway, the girls at my school more often look like they just rolled out of bed.  Our halls are full of t-shirts, shorts, jeans, sweats, and leggings.  Lots of ponytails.  Very little make-up.

And you know what?  I prefer our girls to the TV girls.  I like the slightly awkward frumpy girls who look comfortable.  I like the kids who don't feel like they have to put on airs.  I like that these young women are real, not some Hollywood producer's idea of what young women should look like.

Friends who are raising girls, bless you.  It's a hard road.  The girls they see on TV look nothing like the girls they see in the mirror.  Hug 'em tonight.

And remind them that those fakers are really 27 and had breakouts and bad hair in high school, too.  :)