Thing's I'd tell my younger self.

So as a teen, I was a little different. I was never a ‘popular’ kid and I had a lot of my own ‘quirks’, i've seen a lot of post recently with people giving advice to their younger selves on how to 'be cool' as a teen. Where to shop, what makeup to wear ect. For me, this is something i wish I'd just never cared about, so my advice would be the total opposite. At 13, i went from being cute little centre parting, makeup hating tomboy, to this awkward popular wanna-be. I wish i could go back and shake myself. 

Don’t try to fit in.

I can remember taking a picture of one of the ‘popular’ girls to the hairdressers and asking to get mine cut the same. I’d taken her picture of Bebo and printed it out and I wanted that awkward chopped side fridge all the popular girls were rocking. I looked like a douche. It didn’t suit me at all and to my dismay I still didn’t look like the popular girls. I tried everything to ‘fit in’ and after a while just sort of gave up and accepted who I was. I defiantly had the geek chic vibe down, but I wasn’t doing it ironically. Don’t cake yourself in Matte Mousse foundation, don’t cover your entire eyelid with eyeliner because you don’t know how its supposed to look, don’t put so much product in your hair it looks dirty. Just don’t. Wake up get dressed and go. Those that matter don’t mind, and those that mind don’t matter. Just focus on school, like you actually want to. Working hard in school will actually be worth it. Even though it doesn’t feel like it. Even now during my second year in university there are people having to re-sit their English and Maths GCSE exams and I’m so glad now that I worked so hard when I did.

Don’t dye your own hair.

In fact, don’t dye your hair at all. I don’t even want to know how many times I tried to do this as a child and how many times I literally wanted to cry. My hair was such a lovely colour and I wish I’d just left it alone. I was also told in the changing room at the age of 14 i'd look much better with short hair and i chopped a LOAD of it off and got it bleached. I hated it. It didn't look like mean, and after almost a year of trying to grow it while bleaching it myself it got so damaged and dead i actually had to call and 'emergency hairdresser' because it was stretching who came and literally shaved of all my hair. I was so upset and would have done anything to have my natural hair back. 

Do things you want to do.

If you want to join football club do it. Don’t worry about labels, do it. You enjoy it. I don’t know how many clubs I didn’t join because I was scared of what people would think of me, not that the clubs themselves were embarrassing, just the idea of me being there. In primary school I was in every club possible and I quit every single one in secondary school, which was so disappointing.

Boys suck.

There are obviously exception but please just don’t take the risk. Avoid at all costs. I spent so much time devoted to stupid stinky boys that didn’t appreciate me or deserve me. I used to spend time with my boyfriend instead of my friends and missed out on tones of social events because of this. I’d spend all my time waiting around and turning down invites incase he called me. I would literally love to go back and smack myself if I could.

Your Mother is Right.

Get this into your head now, if it’s about one of your friends that you love, and mum doesn’t like them, they’re probably not a very nice person. You’ll find this out eventually. They have like some kind of special sense that I’m still waiting to develop. It doesn’t matter if it’s about a friend, a boy, an outfit. Just trust me. She’s right. 

These are just a few things I wish I could tell my younger self.

What are yours?

Jemma with a J. x