You guys, I hate to break it to you, but I am cool now. And not even “mom cool”, but the kind of cool where people with skateboards talk to me on public transportation. The kind of cool where other people with brightly colored hair give me chin nods and 20-somethings discuss my outfits when they think I can’t hear them (But, I can! And I love my Ryan Gosling leggings too!). The kind of cool where even when I wear my “I was too overwhelmed to find the shower” look, there’s a touch of “walk of shame” about me, like if you squint your eyes and ignore the kids there’s a chance I did something spicy last night.

Last month when I dyed my hair pink I had no idea I was actually heading back into a world where people were going to notice me again. For a long time, I’ve been occupying this weird mom space where everyone notices your kids and talks about how cute they are and I agree and hope that no one notices the coffee stain on my shirt. With pink hair it’s harder to hide. People want to talk to you about it, comment on it, and in one very flattering exchange, take photos of it.

Um, I kind of loved it.

It’s fun to be seen for yourself instead of only in relation to your kids, to get dressed up in the morning again because the world might take notice. Frankly, it’s been fun to get my mojo back.

Now, listen, I don’t think this resurgence in popularity has much to do with what I look like (you can see that I still haven’t figured out how to keep my glasses clean and it may be time to do something about the growing sun spot, omg). Instead I think it’s due to the fact that I’m acknowledging the part of me that loves dressing up in fashion with touch of crazy. So I put some effort into my appearance and be-bop around town and people notice and the world becomes a friendlier place than when I hope no one notices me because my sweatshirt is two sizes too small.

Am I suddenly advocating showering every day? Hell no. Do I think it’s important to occasionally remember what it feels like to be a grown-up among the living? Hell yes. And if that’s pink hair for me and a snazzy pair of sneakers for you, I say let’s remind the world that, yes, we could still rock an all-night dance party and end up leading the bar in a rendition of “American Pie”, if only we didn’t have to caught up on Empire tonight.

Linkage:

Hair: Jarr, my other love, at Taylor Monroe // Beaded top: Vintage // Sweetest jeans ever because they don’t stretch: Express // Black flats: Christian Siriano for Payless, if you can believe it // Dirty sunglasses: Similar (actually cooler)

Photos by the insanely awesome Erica Bean.