An obituary to The Ugly Phase

‘Rawr xD’ you will be missed

2016 has been the year of death in many regards. We lost icons such as Leonard Cohen, David Bowie, Prince and Severus Snape (Alan Rickman), but also witnessed the death of our country’s morals and integrity with this year’s election and our president-to-be, The Annoying Orange.

However, perhaps the most tragic grievance of this year occurred under the surface. It had been battling a steady decline for years, but it is now apparent that it has truly been lost upon us.

Young people (tweens, as they used to identify themselves), with assistance of social media, have officially assassinated The Ugly Phase: the awkward, socially debilitating middle school years where you allow yourself to, for lack of a better words, embrace your inner ugly. With sixth graders now having full, unfiltered access to Instagram and beauty guru tutorials on YouTube, The Ugly Phase has been eliminated from the transitional period in a person’s life.

The Ugly Phase was a right of passage, and a time in a young person’s life where they were able to explore themselves without outside fears or pressures. Each individual journey was unique, but many included aspects we all came to know and love.

The mirror pic with digital camera

If you didn’t sneak into your bed room to take a million of these after you came home from school, you were doing it wrong.

Over-filtering photos

Picnik and Photobucket were a girl’s best friend. Needed to make your hair blue? Change your eye color? Add a bunch of random words and song lyrics? The options were limitless.

Emo-goth swoop bangs

Because who didn’t want to be a Panic! at the Disco or Paramore groupie?

Nerd glasses

N3rdz rul3d !

Poetic Facebook statuses

I would not be the woman I am today without The Ugly Phase. So thank you for giving me something to glo-up from, and teaching me that editing on eyeliner and incorporating text into my photos was not the best decision.

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University of Delaware