These pictures of your cringe teenage fashion trends will haunt you for life

Hidden in your Bebo albums, cached away on MySpace with Tom Hardy’s selfies, hidden from your early Facebook profile, it’s easy to forget about how dodgy you looked in your mid-teens.

It was a time of nobody understanding you, of side fringes, My Chemical Romance t-shirts and footless tights. But without embracing this dark period, it’s impossible to move forward.

Let’s work through this together.

Vica Germanova – Cambridge

At age 14 I “discovered” false lashes, tragically long before discovering make up, and decided I was the hottest shit going.

Such intense, wow

Lauren-Rae Dodd – Northumbria

I left the house like this.

Charlie Gardiner-Hill – Durham

I remember genuinely thinking that these outfits were seriously cool at the time. I don’t find them cringe now because they worked out in that time and place. But it does make me wish I’d had an older sister to tell me I looked ridiculous.

Josh Kaplan – Nottingham

Fa$hun from the mean streets of Surrey.

Gabriel Pogrund – UCL

The girls at the school near mine uploaded all these wavy Bebo photos – them in red skinny jeans, posing in playgrounds and parks, looking all free spirited. They’d often use “negative” and other effects to amplify the vibe. I didn’t have a Sony K510i or many (any) friends, but wanted some Bebo snaps of my own, so I got my dad’s camera and forced my little brother to take photos of me in my kitchen holding grapes. I think the shirt’s from river island kids and the aviators were from a stall on Oxford street. I still don’t have a k510i or many friends, but I now wear low-risk, typically navy charity shop wear and Gap Men’s.

Jess Austin – Leeds

I was wannabe scene. I really wanted raccoon tails but I wasn’t allowed. Although I did dye my hair pink at one point.

Russell Sheldrake – Oxford Brookes

I was in Year Nine here so like 13. I used to be proper into my rock-band metal but was just too middle class to pull it off. So I guess this is middle class metal?

Anya Davoren – Aberystwyth

The embarrassment is intense.

Kitty Mayo – UCL

I watched Juno and thought smoking a pipe would set me apart from the crowd, you know, make me edgy and quirky. I was too afraid to smoke real tobacco though so I ordered some “herbal pipe tobacco” off Amazon. I don’t know what kind of youth that made me, but back in ’08 I was a bellend.

I also wore some old glasses of my dad’s to look hipster until I started getting migraines.

Beth Meadows – Liverpool

I wish I could explain the pose but I can’t.

#indiechic

Eleni Mitzali – Nottingham

There was a time when I thought I was so cool going to Disneyland with teased hair and a Paul Frank shirt. A time when Stan Smiths and Wesc tops were a must.

My selfies were still on point though.

Niamh Campbell – QUB

This is me at a St Patrick’s Day disco when I was 12 – standard.

Joss Wellings – QUB

I really wanted to be Elvis. Or James Dean. I can’t remember which now.

Harry Shukman – Cambridge

Teenage fashion style was mostly based around the idea that wearing a hat or a shirt on top of the clothes your mum bought you would make you seem cool and then girls would fancy you. Actually, I think it’s still the same.