Pink Hair and being you.

I was a teenager during the 90's grunge movement.  I wanted to dye my hair, pink, green, blue. Whatever.  I so desperately wanted to join the goth kids because I liked their views of the world.  I wanted to hang out with the kids who were in bands, because damn their clothes looked comfortable. 

But alas, I didn't have the confidence to switches peer groups, dye my hair and buy new clothes.  Mostly because I was too damn cheap and lazy to do any of that.  Do you have any idea HOW MUCH WORK is to required to switch cliques?  How much money I would have to spend going into New Hope and since my mom would be with me, how much time I'd have to spend in the Irish Heritage store? 
(That joke is only funny if you know that New Hope is a tiny town on the New Jersey/ Pennsylvania border where the 60's never died.  It's got like 5 tattoo shops, 4 thrift shows, a Theater that shows Rocky Horror every Halloween, tons of antique shops and of course an Irish Heritage store.  It's also were all the goth kids bought their clothes, or at least that's where they did back on the 90's, now they buy it at hot topic.)

Long rambling story short... I never dyed my hair.

Then I went to college... and still never got around to it.

Then I graduated and had to be a professional.  Sign.  It looked like I missed out on my opportunity for cool hair.

Then I started blogging and you know what I noticed, YA authors are SO STINKING CUTE... AND lots of them have fun hair: Stephen Perkins, Laini Taylor just to name two.

So I thought, maybe, just maybe I could pull it off.

Once again I talked myself out of it, I'm a mom, I'm a teacher, I'm 33 years old.  Ho hum, time to be boring OLD me.

Today my husband and I are celebrating our ninth wedding anniversary, and a few months ago I asked him what he liked in a woman. he said, "Pink hair."
"SERIOUSLY? I've always wanted pink hair." I yelled-- very loud.

FINALLY I HAD AN EXCUSE!  I would dye my hair PINK as an anniversary gift for my husband! 

I researched what pink hair would look like,  I googled pink hair, I over thought  how much I would dye--- I couldn't go TOTAL pink, after all I was a mom, 33 and a TEACHER--- who has SUMMERS OFF!!!  And hair dye only lasts 6 weeks.

I decided on all pink on the back of my head and pink highlights throughout.  I looked in the mirror and thought:  wow, this is me.  This is really what I'm supposed to look like.  Fun, quirky and yet sort of sensible.

I love it.  So here's pictures to prove the awesomeness:

Back of the head.

Pig tales and too much eye make up

Hair down-  it's the first time I feel pretty too!

So this got me thinking, it took me 20 years to work up the nerve to dye my hair, to finally feel 100% comfortable with who I am. And THAT'S why I write YA.  For twenty years I had ugly girl syndrome because I didn't have the courage to be myself, to let my outside reflect my inner awesomeness. 

For any teens out there reading, don't wait for an excuse to be you.  JUST BE YOU.
And I know it sounds super cheesy, and I know it sounds bad because I let a man change the way I look, and I'm well aware of how difficult it can be to be yourself.  But it's the most rewarding adventure you can take.

Good luck!

Next summer I'm going BLUE!