The jeans were soft, buttery, on my eleven-year-old skin. They weren’t Lees with the wave of stitching on the back pocket that the coolest girls wore. But as I checked out my backside in the mirror on my closet door, I didn’t care. The dangling tag I’d snipped off said, “Ladies, wear your Skivas tight!” I preened in the mirror, admired how the side stitching emphasized my already-long legs. I strutted the length of my room, repeated the phrase from the tag, then whipped my head around to catch my reflection, the window of my own approval not yet closed.
Louise Julig has a weird compunction to tell slightly embarrassing true stories in front of a bar full of people in San Diego, California. Find Louise at www.louisejulig.com and on Twitter and Instagram @louisejulig.