THE  27Th  EDITIOn

At age 6 my chin dripped with vanilla ice cream peppered with rainbow sprinkles Because they made me feel sparkly inside and my gap-toothed grin and drippy double Chin are forever captured in my mom’s Shutterfly memories. My round face was

Dotted with untameable curls that fly away and sprout from my temples.

Eight year old me was the first version that started tucking them behind my ear,

For that had to do until I discovered the magical flat iron. Turning ten

Gifted me with tight clothes that revealed every bump and roll on my soft body,

Holding me accountable, 

Introducing me to my flaws at 

Just 10 years old. In middle school, I 

Knew I was a bigger girl, so I stood, contorting my 

Legs to create the illusion of a gap in between my thighs. I closed my

Mouth to hide the only gap I did possess. 

Ninth grade taught me that my eyes look better 

Outlined in black, and not the 

Purple frames of my clunky glasses, 

Quickly replaced by contacts that made my eyes glisten. Sophomore year me Remembered nutritional labels better than the pythagorean theorem. And junior year was

Sponsored by a straightening iron, which 

Took up to two hours a day, and no one 

Understood why I did it but me, who flattened her frizzy curls into an unenterable

Void, so maybe a cute boy 

Would talk to me. I entered college with no stories of 

X-boyfriends to entertain with. So I bleached my hair 

Yellow because blondes are more fun and I wanted out of the friend

Zone.