The Awkward Years
August 1, 2013 4:45 PM   Subscribe

The Awkward Years is a Tumblr that features adults sharing a photo of their most awkward moments of childhood, complete with 80s hair, braces, and big glasses. "I want to show everyone, especially kids, how great people turn out & that they're swans in the making."
posted by bfranklin (45 comments total) 9 users marked this as a favorite
 
A lot of the "before" pictures I see....aren't that bad.

Which is probably telling in and of itself.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:52 PM on August 1, 2013 [8 favorites]


I saw this... They all were and are hot.

Some of them had OMG glasses or OMG braces. Or both.
posted by sweetkid at 4:59 PM on August 1, 2013 [3 favorites]


Let's do this.
posted by MrMoonPie at 5:03 PM on August 1, 2013 [2 favorites]


Do they have Sarah Silverman going on about teenage bed wetting?
posted by bukvich at 5:13 PM on August 1, 2013


I had those photos BURNED.
posted by The Whelk at 5:15 PM on August 1, 2013 [2 favorites]


I had facebook when I was 14. Thanks to their recent updates and sharing-is-caring data policy, me and all of my friends can look back at those years with unprecedented resolution in a multifaceted and immersive media experience.

These guys have got nothing.
posted by Ned G at 5:29 PM on August 1, 2013


Are they ALL from Utah?
posted by dismas at 5:35 PM on August 1, 2013


Are they ALL from Utah?

At the moment, yes, she's working within her local circle.
posted by bfranklin at 5:37 PM on August 1, 2013


I'm closer to 40 than 20 and look way better now.
posted by sweetkid at 5:38 PM on August 1, 2013 [7 favorites]


But just look at George Clooney
posted by sweetkid at 5:44 PM on August 1, 2013


Or Jensen Ackles.

I'm way more attractive in my soon to be 30s than my early 20s. I was a huge puffy werid mess in my early 20s.
posted by The Whelk at 5:46 PM on August 1, 2013 [1 favorite]


I am somewhat distressed to notice how many of these transformations apparently involve hair straightening.
posted by asperity at 5:49 PM on August 1, 2013 [4 favorites]


Yea I'm one of those. It's just like every makeover on tv is like no glasses! Straight hair! And that message gets through to everyone
posted by sweetkid at 5:51 PM on August 1, 2013


I agree with asperity; you don't have to straighten your hair.
posted by nohaybanda at 5:52 PM on August 1, 2013


Okay, see the picture on this page? I was one of those guys. Does it really matter which one?
posted by uncleozzy at 5:57 PM on August 1, 2013 [9 favorites]


I think it only really matters that you were involved in making a song called "Jism Omelet".
posted by nohaybanda at 6:00 PM on August 1, 2013 [8 favorites]


puberty's a bitch.

my first thought was—finally, somewhere to put that polaroid of skinny twelve-year-old me, shirtless and shoeless in blue jeans and ninja mask, putting on a martial arts show in the living room. but really, i look pretty much the same now.
posted by echocollate at 6:04 PM on August 1, 2013 [1 favorite]


Needs more lasers.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 6:06 PM on August 1, 2013 [5 favorites]


The World Famous, George Clooney was a joke to lighten the mood. I take your word I'll look hideous in my 40s, k? Woohoo yay.
posted by sweetkid at 6:14 PM on August 1, 2013 [4 favorites]


Ah, this reminds me of when I first got on FB, at least three years after most of my fellow classmates from high school. It was then that I saw the comment from my BFF, the only person I actually kept in touch with who wrote:

"[tafetta, darling!] looks so much better now. She was a late bloomer."

While I agreed with her, I wish she hadn't pasted it all over FB when I couldn't even respond.

(Further datapoint: at my wedding, we had pictures of the two of us throughout the years. Miy teenage glasses and braces years were not included. Hubby still won't let me live that down.)
posted by tafetta, darling! at 6:41 PM on August 1, 2013


I have only had 51.5 awkward years out of a possible 51.5 so far, but I'll let you know if that changes.
posted by FelliniBlank at 7:36 PM on August 1, 2013 [2 favorites]


I am so glad I didn't have Facebook when I was a teenager. God, my haircut. My stupid haircut.
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 7:45 PM on August 1, 2013


Okay -

It's a small picture, but that's me on the right. I have just been surprised by my two best friends on my 16th Birthday, who have announced that they are "kidnapping me" and taking me to a surprise birthday lunch for the three of us (they actually blindfolded me before we got into the car, so I wouldn't see that a) we were actually going to McDonald's, and b) that everyone else I knew was waiting for us there).

Bad pictures do exist of me from that era, yes, but...good ones do too.

(Also - if you remember the epic story of My Friend Sue And The Roses, Sue is on the left.)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:07 PM on August 1, 2013 [2 favorites]


A lot of these people honestly don't look that much different.


Seriously, if I hadn't had all the pictures of me in high scool with the terrible flourescent orange permed mullet catapulted into the sun, it would be SO. ON.

Unfortunately for our purposes, the only high scool picture I have access to is me going to prom in a pair of Chuck Taylors. Though I am clearly uncomfortable with the amount of pink I am wearing I assure you it is the only non-terrible picture of me from this time period.
posted by louche mustachio at 8:10 PM on August 1, 2013


When I look at the supposedly "awkward" pictures, I see perfectly fine kids who look and present just like many kids I know and see now, minus some then-appropriate fashion choices. The stories, though, reveal such negative self-perceptions and lack of support and care from their families and commuities. Nobody really deserves that. There's a temptation to say "boy, didn't I improve" when looking at our awkward youth photos. But we shouldn't be so sure anything was ever really wrong, or that it's all OK as long as we turned out beautiful in the end. It is fine to critique the messages that were ever sent that said "you're not all right." Mostly, they were never true in the first place.

Growing up is hard.
posted by Miko at 8:21 PM on August 1, 2013 [9 favorites]


I look the same as I did in eighth grade. For some people the awkward years never end.
posted by betweenthebars at 8:33 PM on August 1, 2013


This seems like the perfect opportunity to share my husband's senior high school photo. I love it so much.
posted by makonan at 8:55 PM on August 1, 2013 [23 favorites]


Awwww.
posted by sweetkid at 9:11 PM on August 1, 2013


I beat all of them
posted by The Gooch at 9:30 PM on August 1, 2013 [1 favorite]


People still mistake me for a guy in his mid 40's.
posted by Pudhoho at 9:40 PM on August 1, 2013


I win.
posted by Lucinda at 9:56 PM on August 1, 2013 [1 favorite]


I look at pictures of myself when young and think of how tortured and ugly I felt, and wish I could go and talk to that younger me and tell me I look awesome and to stop worrying about it all.
posted by lesbiassparrow at 10:24 PM on August 1, 2013 [3 favorites]


Is this where I complain that I'm 25, and still get carded for R rated movies? People tell me, "oh you'll be grateful when you're older" and that may be true but right now it is so frustrating to have to work to be seen as an adult.

(Note: at this point I ask people how old they think I am as a game. I've had responses vary between 17 and 32.
posted by Night_owl at 11:14 PM on August 1, 2013


> Yes, all you guys in your early 30s can totally expect to look like George Clooney in a decade or so.

Two decades. He's 52.
posted by desuetude at 11:34 PM on August 1, 2013


I may not win, but I'm in the running, aren't I?
posted by unliteral at 11:51 PM on August 1, 2013 [1 favorite]


Enormous square glasses: check
Terrible hair: check
Braces: check

That was me in middle school.

I didn't stay that way, obviously. I got taller, I got older, I got married, I got myself in better shape, and I got through grad school. I like who I am now, and I am comfortable with being me.

Now, I look at my four-year-old son. People tell me that he is "adorable" and on at least one occasion a woman stopped me specifically to tell me "wow he is cute, great work!" (Obviously I think he is cute, but as a scientist, I rely on others to provide an unbiased sample.)

The other thing I hear about him is that he looks so, so much like me.

I think the awkward teenage phase becomes our focus, because it is when we are developing our adult personality. Before and after almost all of us look fine, and our whole lives, almost all of us are pretty awesome, but until we are reminded of this, we still feel like the misfit middle school kid inside.
posted by caution live frogs at 5:09 AM on August 2, 2013


(Also - if you remember the epic story of My Friend Sue And The Roses, Sue is on the left.)

One of my favorite things I've ever read on Metafilter.
posted by bfranklin at 5:19 AM on August 2, 2013


But we shouldn't be so sure anything was ever really wrong, or that it's all OK as long as we turned out beautiful in the end. It is fine to critique the messages that were ever sent that said "you're not all right."

With the benefit of distance and time, I've been able to look at my high school pictures (and sure, it's amusing that I hadn't quite grown into my nose yet) and say "I guess it really was just a confidence thing." I really was just getting the "you're not all right" message for all those years.
posted by bfranklin at 5:26 AM on August 2, 2013 [1 favorite]


I scanned in 4 giant photo albums of grandparents' collected memories. I have so many awesome photos of my dad and his 2 brothers. More than a few of me. A few super embarassing ones. My *much* better looking younger sister in her dance leotard got me yelled at on facebook for days when I posted it.

What I don't have is the one of me from my middle school year book with a tie around my head, my oversized glasses upside down that they used to label the "fill out your memories" section next to "My most embarassing moment ______________________" (with my permission)
posted by DigDoug at 5:33 AM on August 2, 2013


I really wish I still had that photo of Dave Herlihy giving me bunny ears.
posted by pxe2000 at 6:35 AM on August 2, 2013


One of my life's crowning achievements, my H.S. yearbook photo.

kind of a cheat there since, by my last year of high school, I had the confidence to intentionally look ridiculous. Like The Whelk, all photos from 7th-9th grade have been burned.
posted by mcstayinskool at 7:40 AM on August 2, 2013


Actually the best part about finally starting to shed the babyface I've had all through my 20s is that I don't have to grow to massive beard to keep old guys interested in jailbait from hitting on me in bars.
posted by The Whelk at 9:33 AM on August 2, 2013


Yeah, I'm with Miko here. All I see in these photos is beautiful charming youngsters and grown-ups.
posted by FelliniBlank at 10:37 AM on August 2, 2013


"I had those photos BURNED."

Dude, The Whelk burning photos of himself?

Oh wait, you had them burned (too painful to do yourself?).
posted by Eideteker at 10:42 AM on August 2, 2013


There's a photo of my sister and me as children, that she always describes as "Help these poor children, for just a dollar a month..." And really, it would illustrate such a plea quite well. Technically we're merely playing naked in our yard, but at this particular point we had completely vacant expressions and just looked extra needy.
posted by Margalo Epps at 9:44 AM on August 3, 2013


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