Before I begin my inaugural article for The Odyssey, I want to take a moment to remind each of you how beautiful you are. I know, I know, it sounds cheesy. But it’s true. It can become difficult to remember this when you are constantly surrounded by other beautiful people- welcome to TCU, but trust me when I say that you are beautiful. Take a moment today and find what it is about yourself that you consider beautiful. I promise it will make you smile! 

Now, let’s get down to business: fashion. From the moment I was born, I’ve always loved fashion. In kindergarten, I had a pair of shiny black riding boots that clicked when I walked and I wore them literally everywhere, even to the pool. The teachers thought it was hilarious, and my mother quickly learned that it was much easier to let me wear them than it was to convince me to wear something more…reasonable. 

Fashion is my favorite self-expression medium, and is easily one of my favorite ways to spend my time. Whether that is flipping through magazines, following my favorite fashion blogs (many of which have the word “glitter” in the title), browsing online at my favorite clothing websites, or taking a couple of hours to window-shop at local boutiques, I simply love the feeling that I get when trying out the latest trends and brainstorming new, fun outfit ideas. 

During my nineteen years as a self-proclaimed fashionista, I’ve gone through many questionable “experimental” stages. For example, a vivid image of an outfit consisting of camouflage pants, a red and black striped t-shirt, and a black tie (I was channeling Avril Lavigne circa 2005) comes to mind. Definitely not my proudest moment, however at the time I loved that outfit and boy, did I own it. Also, who remembers how cool it was to wear the newest Hollister t-shirts?! I probably owned twenty of them. Occasionally, I also wore indie band t-shirts (who remembers The Maine?!) and brightly colored skinny jeans paired with converse - it really just depended on how scene/preppy I was feeling on the day in question. 

Now, I’m sure all of you have had your fair share of fashion successes and failures. As you can see, I certainly have. However, at the time I wore those t-shirts or that black tie or those shiny black boots, I felt like I was on top of the world. I exuded the combined confidence of Rihanna and Beyonce while walking the halls, and it translated into making my smile bright and my days even brighter. And that, the confidence that you have when you know your outfit is on-point, is why I love fashion. 

It took me quite some time and experimenting with various looks to find my own, individual style, but now that I have it, it’s so much fun! Of course, I still have my days when all I want to do is wear oversized t-shirts, and that is totally okay. But there’s just something wonderful about taking that extra thirty minutes in the morning to get dressed up and wear something that stands out and expresses who I am.  

Each of us has different parts of our personality that we enjoy displaying and one of the best ways to display those unique qualities is through your style. The fun thing about fashion is that you can (and hopefully do) change what you wear literally every day. This means that you can express different aspects of yourself on any given day, and then totally switch it up the very next day. So, I encourage you to take some time at least one day this week, put together an outfit that makes you feel like you are ***FLAWLESS, and make that day your… well, you get the picture! You are beautiful, so why not dress up and flaunt what you got?