Teenage Awkwardness

I struck up a conversation with a parent the other day that I want to share.

She mentioned that her teenage son and friends were lamenting about their physical awkwardness; their heads, ears and eyes did not form a “beautiful” face. She walked up to the group and they asked her opinion. She agreed. She stated that their facial features hadn’t grown at the same rate, when their features catch up with each other, you’ll look great.

Then she suggested that they go through her freshman yearbook and pick out the good looking and the not so good looking kids in the class. Then go to her senior yearbook and look up those same people.

You guessed it. What they found is that those “good” looking kids looked “not so good” looking. And the “not so good” looking kids looked “good.” She restated that when your facial features are not growing at the same rate, you’re not considered “good” looking, but once all your features catch up with each other, you look great.

I love her wording that the facial features were growing at different rates. This not only makes a lot of sense, but puts everyone on the same playing field. All teenagers go through this awkward stage and at different points of their teenage years.

I never went to one school longer than 2 years; so I cannot perform this experiment. Have you experienced this? Have you had any conversations with your kid about this? I’d love to hear your comments.