For the Lover Of: Embrace the Brace

I was a typical nerdy kid growing up, loved doing well in school, had my own group of friends but got on with most other kids. Secondary school and the pre-teen spots started... I became quite insecure; big ears, glasses (they weren't cool back then) and these horrible things on my face. To top it off, my Mam bought me a second-hand gabardine and from what I could make of it, it was from the 80's! Now I love the 80's, in fact I think I should have been a teenager in the 80's - Queen, Thin Lizzy, Blondie... and don't get me started on the fashion, it was just class, it's our vintage now to enjoy..

Now back to this gabardine, talk about black sheep of the family. Going to school with the girls, I stood out (for all the wrong reasons!). The girls were pretty and blonde, had lovely skin, nice teeth and of course they had normal coloured gabardines! You think I'm exaggerating but theirs were literally what I would call a petrol green shade and mine was illuminous green!

So why am I telling you all this? In secondary school, my confidence only started to come back in my Leaving Cert year; spots were less visible and controlled, I became accustomed to the gabardine (I wore it for 5 years and it was easy to pick out from the rest at home-time!) and I had nice teeth (had being the operative word)..

As the years went on, socialising with friends, going to gigs, clubs and just finding myself as a person (I think I still am), I started to have a "thing" for nice teeth. It'd be the first thing I'd notice when talking or looking at someone.

My own teeth began to go crooked in my mid 20's and I considered braces. I was no longer the spotted illuminous green gabardine wearer but a young confident girl who was starting to feel conscious of my teeth!

I've since got braces, reluctantly putting it off for a few years and I have to say, I'm happy I have. I reckon back in the day, braces would have added to the insecurity I felt so it seems like the right time. Yes I've had the soreness, the awkwardness of eating, drinking through a straw and the elastics! But I'm older, wiser (I like to think so anyway) and comfortable enough in my own skin to wear them at this stage.

Now they don't look like Rihanna's, Beyonce's or Miley's grills but I like to think more quirky and goofy as in Katy Perry T.G.I.F... It's not forever and I love that video! I even tried to dress up as her for Halloween because of my braces but the costume wasn't in stock...

Time's flying by already and next year I'll have a Hollywood smile, well kind of, not in a Simon Cowell way, more so a Dublin way!

I've definitely embraced the brace...