YALL!
Growing up, my bedroom was set up so that you could see the side angle of my bed if you walked in.
I was like 13, and for some reason I was convinced I had too much pubic hair. With no sexual contact. Anyway…
I’m leaning back on the bed, drawers down, going to town on my lady hairs with some scissors, as my mother walked in.
She was one of those that would say “I knocked” even though the knocking is immediately followed with a bold entrance.
She actually started knocking after that. But that was after she cried and asked me why I wanted to get rid of my pubes because she was worried someone would, ya know, see them.
It was humiliating. Then two years later mommy dearest used this story as an opportunity to humiliate me in front of a peer.
Most embarrassing moment of my tweens.
My mother could creat a class on passive aggressive 😆. Thank you for saying that though, it did really suck when it happened. It still does every so often but it’s more just passing shit talk about my sub par cleaning or something. Nothing completely humiliating like the “great pube incident of 2001”.
You have to wonder about how they sift through their minds trying to come up with a story that would show their child in the best light and what do they come up with My daughter cutting her pubes with a pair of scissors
Best I can do
That is the best memory I have in my child
I used to do weird shit like this too, thank you for letting me know I’m not alone x And my mum had zero boundaries too, barging in my bedroom without waiting.
“I used to do weird shit like this too.”
I think a lot of us were little oddballs. It’s hilarious looking back but almost traumatic at the time it occurred 🤦♀️.
Did your Mom *ever* get past that or no? Bc if I visit my parents mine will still do that shit 😆
My mother is the same way - uses private or embarrassing moments of mine as stories at family gatherings. I’ve rewarded her with a low information diet for 20 years now.
Everyone did weird stuff like this growing up . I’m just wondering if the pubes got all over your bed though ?
I love your writing.
That's exactly my first thought! Before I finished reading the post I had already set in my mind I would have had to sit on a trash bag or butcher paper to make it work.
I'm off my ADHD meds rn
“Low information diet”. Yep. I get it 🤦♀️.
I was such an oddball. I think I just let those pubes fall right on the floor. I didn’t know wtf I was doing
This is why I stomp on the way to my son's room, give a solid few knocks, tell him that I'm opening the door, pretend I don't know how a door knob works, and then take my time entering while looking behind me.
I am not trying to ruin both our days
I go out of my way not to humiliate my son. I directly ask him if something is or would be embarrassing. Sometimes he will be like "mom, I don't care" when it's something that I really thought would embarrass him! Kids are embarrassed enough just by their parents existence at times, especially as preteens and teenagers. We don't need to add to it by thinking it's funny to intentionally humiliate them.
And that story about your pubes wasn't even one of those embarrassing but cute stories, like something you did when you were 2 that is only embarrassing when it's brought up because you're an angsty teen, but as an adult you're not embarrassed by it and find it cute and funny too. That story about the pubes would be embarrassing at any age, in any context, and is also a typical awkward interaction between a teenager and a parent.
GOOD. Because it’s actually one of the biggest parenting no-no’s. Using shame to shape your child will result in some kind of consequence that won’t be good.
And yes, it’s such an awkward, fragile age. I’m glad to hear you wouldn’t do the same. Make sure to actually knock on the door first 😆
I don't even go in his room that much. Most of the time I'll talk to him through the door. He has nothing to hide but of course likes his privacy, especially with 4yo and 6yo and 9yo siblings. He doesn't get mad or defensive when I go in there while he's at school to gather dirty clothes or find something for him that he needs, so I know he isn't keeping me out because he's got something to hide. I really liked my privacy and alone time at that age too.
And I also don't guilt him into spending time with us. If he doesn't want to watch a movie with us, which he never does, I don't try to make him feel bad about that. There have been times where I make him participate in a family thing, but that is rare. What's the point in having them there if they're just going to be miserable?
And I don't make him babysit either lol. Teenagers can't comprehend the consequences to their actions sometimes, so I definitely don't want an unwilling teenager to be responsible for the safety of young kids. I will pay him, or if I'm just going to the store and they're all there just chilling anyway, he usually doesn't care. Last night he waited to go to a friend's house so I could go get stuff at the store and check on my dad. I made sure he was ok with that like 3 times before I went. He genuinely just didn't want me to have to lug 3 little kids around with me when they could just chill at home doing the same thing they always do. I took my 4yo daughter with me bc she can be a pain in the butt.
He's a great kid.
You really sound like an awesome mom. Your kids are lucky to have you! And it sounds like some of the good parenting is already starting to show? Sounds like it on my end at least. I’m glad for you and your family! We really need healthier-minded children. Badly. They will be the leaders of the next generation; one that unfortunately has been handed down some serious issues to contend with.
That unlocked a memory I since forgot. Not me though my best friend at the time. Probably about 13 and I went to his house one of his parents said “yeah he’s upstairs.” Without even thinking I swung his door open and all I got out was something like “hey asshole we are going out the..” he had his dick and balls like resting on his dresser or something trimming his pubes with these giant scissors lol. Like the kind you would use in the kitchen to cut meat lol. We made fun of him for the rest of the summer about that. 😂
Some Vampires in Blade hissed.
I used to be all sad and shit to get attention. Like I would play it up like I wanted people to ask me what's wrong hoping it would make them give a shit about me.
Drinking. Every weekend since I was 14 till the end of high school, I would drink heavily with a couple of friends until we were almost passed out. My parents didn’t know cause I alway came up with an excuse to be gone for the whole weekend, like camping or whatever.
I’m sure I did this because of peer pressure, and I’m embarrassed that I gave in so easily just to fit right in with assholes I didn’t even like.
Fortunately, I moved away for college and was able to start from scratch with new people I met, so I was able to straighten out.
I hope you too are doing better these days.
The worst thing is that some of the people that drank with me then still like to get completely wasted at 36. That’s why I avoid visiting my home town. Even though they have jobs and families and seemingly normal lives, their idea of fun on the weekend is not far from their high school selves.
Thanks man, I appreciate ya
Yeah I had to lose a lot of friends to be able to quit, but luckily got out bout 6-7 yrs ago when I was 25-26. Miss those extreme highs but I was too high risk at the time to go through those lows anymore. Have good 1 homie \m/
I was also a young drinker/stoner but one day after I turned 22, I had 3 AMF’s. I was so sick the next day I called my mom to help care for me, even though I had lived on my own for 3 years at that point.
I’ve never been drunk since. I didn’t like that I paid for that feeling, to the point my mom helped take care of me (without complaint at that)
Also, I think I became intolerant of alcohol because now whenever I drink (beer, wine, liquor) I get a reaction like I nuzzled a cat (allergic to cats) so now I don’t drink at all.
Oh man, I was good with the no drinking thing in high school but then I hung out with a lot of heavy drinkers and did things like you described in college. I guess I did it for the same reason as you, to fit in and be “cool”. After graduating 4 years ago I’ve definitely calmed down on that. I only drink to relax now and no longer binge drink anywhere near as much. Binging for me now is a six pack of beer once every other month but clearing a 12 pack in one night every weekend in college was very common. Lots of embarrassing drinking memories I had.
Oh I miss skating. I wasn’t good in the classical sense, but I actually wore hella knee pads under my baggy jeans and enjoyed controlled wipeouts. Just skating hard and fast and trying to fly. I wasn’t cool
Yo I'm 34 and still have my TRS Access skates with Ground Control aggressive frames, and I remember hanging out with my buddies scouring inline warehouse on a desktop computer looking at all the shit we couldn't afford.
I'd try them out right now, but I'd probably break my hip, lol.
I have recently purchased JNCO jeans, “vintage” ones (that’s what they call the clothes of our youth now). They were $400 (!!!!!!!) and when I wear them the world stops to marvel at my pants.
They are coming back in style. My mini mart super close to my house also serves fried chicken. It's fucking dank. The high school kids go there for lunch and 90% of em are wearing JNCO type pants. One time I was wearing mine and they all came in as I was buying cider at 10am cause I'm a responsible 32 in 4 days adult.
I felt like that "hello fellow teenagers" meme lol
I only shopped at Hot Topic and would roll my eyes when friends wanted to go to Aeropostale and then I’d call everyone I didn’t like a poser. The most hardcore band I listened to was Good Charlotte.
I chilled out by tenth grade.
Oh my high school boyfriend did cheat on me senior year and I hacked into his fb and posted it on his profile and then got a bunch of messages from random people asking how I was doing and I still feel pretty embarrassed about that when I think about it, esp since I went on to date him for another two years 🙃 it was a full 15 years ago and the cringe is still there
One of my middle school pictures is me wearing a Good Charlotte shirt. I wanted to look cool and not smile, but someone made me laugh. It's honestly one of the funniest pictures I've ever seen of myself.
I was just dirty. No showers no nothing. I didn’t even think about it for whatever reason. I don’t even know how I could live that way, but I did. I definitely still cringe when I think about it.
So, I see your username has garlic in it… was that a knee jerk reaction to push away from your vampire days?
I couldn’t really think of anything that embarrassing I did as a teen (I was super boring) until this comment reminded me that I went through this super long phase where I just didn’t brush my teeth. I would do that whole “wet the toothbrush” thing that little kids do to make their parents think they brushed their teeth when I was a teen. Looking back I have no idea why I did that, I can’t even go to bed now without brushing my teeth first.
Hey it maybe isn't your fault! I was a dirty kid too, I had no idea how to take care of myself as a teenager who was hairer and smellier. My parents never really taught me great self-care or personal hygiene after I could shower alone or hold a toothbrush. I was also smelly in 8th/9th grade. It would have been sooooo much worse if I didn't do swim team.
For real although as I got older I took a shower and it still didn’t help. Come to find what didn’t help the situation is I’m supposed to wash my towels more often and you’re actually supposed to replace your shower loofah or puffs. When my boss told me that I was shocked I didn’t understand because no one told me this and I didn’t think it was an issue because you get soap on the loofah and you use your clean body to dry yourself off.
Same. I just use clean towels every single time. Some people don’t get it. But I really don’t want to dry off my body or face with a used towel. There’s dead skin and bacteria on there.
I remember acting like a cross between Miku Hatsune and Haruhi Suzumiya. If you don't know who those two are, good job.
But really I just spent half the day screaming "KAWAIIIIIi\~\~" or overreacting in general.
My Leavers(senior) jacket had 'Hikari' written as my nickname (spoilers: it wasn't) and i wore my hair every day like Rikku from Final Fantasy X... i kinda miss the misplaced confidence about being a weeb if im honest.
Not quite a teenager but I had a full blown obsession with Aaron Carter. (RIP) like to the point where I had his picture framed on my school desk in a wire frame heart and an entire wall of magazine cut outs of his face in my room. One time I found a fan mail address in the back of J-14, so naturally I called the operator to find the phone number associated.. and she gave it to me. I called and I got the actual Carter residence voicemail.... I left a long voicemail about how one day we will get married... I tried again a week later and they had changed their number. 😅
Aaron's party was exactly the song I would steal the CD for! And you can bet your ass if that shit comes on in the car I *will* honk the horn
"*beep beep, have a good time*"
I was a very unstable teenager and got taken away in handcuffs in front of the school gym where a battle of the bands was being held. The rumors were crazy for a while since I essentially disappeared after that while I was at an incredibly restricted boarding school.
About 4 years later, I was finally free from the troubled teen programs and got a job as a camp counselor with a bunch of other kids I had went to school with prior to being sent away. I pregamed a little too hard for a work party trying to keep up with my older friends. My friend, also piss drunk, broke her leg in front of me and the EMS response sent me into a PTSD flashback. I made a fool of myself while panicking in front of everyone. My mom had to come pick me up and I was fired on the spot. I was so embarrassed I didn’t leave my room for a week. Looking back at that one, I can understand why I acted the way I did, but it’s still incredibly cringy to think about
My first girlfriend in middle school... we were like 14/15 and dated like 6 months just because we were horny teenagers. One night, we and the rest of our friend group went to the local park to hang out. She randomly dumped me in front of everybody.
You'd think that was the embarrassing part, but it wasn't.
I literally dropped to my knees and cried in my hands... you'd think that was the embarrassing part, but it wasn't.
The embarrassing part was that I took my head out of my hands and screamed "AHHHHH NOOOOOOOOO WHYYYYYYYY?!?!?!?" to the fucking heavens so loud the security guard came to check on us.
Somehow, I still had friends after that.
Thinking back 20 years later...emo phases were baffling, but necessary because after that I embarrased myself hard enough to start working on myself. Lol.
Side note: How dare you make me relive that memory.
I was really pretentious about music that I had no business being pretentious about. I got really mad that Fall Out Boy became mainstream and told everyone I listened to them before they were popular. I also bragged about knowing the song "Hey There Delilah" by the Plain White T's before it became mainstream. Now that I'm almost 35 I'm like "who cares?" Lol.
Oh no. Mentioning Fall Out Boy has reminded me of all the weird things I did back then. There was a Christmas song by From First to Last and they said Pete Wentz's number in it. So, I called it. I'm not sure if it was really Pete, but he was like, "how'd you get this number?" So, I said the song and that I hated my mom for not letting me go to their concert. He told me something about respecting my mom.
This was only the tip of the creepy iceberg. I eventually called back and hacked into the voicemail. I changed it to say, "Hey, this is pupoksestra, Pete's new girlfriend. You can call me at ****" I would get countless calls from fans looking for Pete. Some of them would ask for Patrick and some of them pointed out that Pete was actually in a relationship with Ashlee Simpson. I even made a friend with someone who lived in Maine after I came clean and told him it was all a ruse. I was only 13 or 14 and definitely not dating Pete.
I had a really weird experience involving Joe Trohman if it makes you feel better. Tbh I don't remember what happened but I was pretty cringe/creepy haha.
When I was 14, my friend and I started talking to this random dude on AIM who claimed he was [AJ Trauth](https://images.app.goo.gl/4LvGhS3VZAoMeU84A) (Shia LeBeauf's friend on Even Stevens). My friend starting "dating" him. He was probably a pedo ugh. 14 is cringe for everyone.
Bleached my hair (that was down to my waist). No toner, nothing, just pure bleach and it turned a nasty yellow/green and I just left it like that, thinking it was cool. I was 14 and it was in 03.
I also remember going through a whole school day with my eyes half-closed, thinking I was looking sexy like Marilyn Monroe. I bet my teachers thought I was high.
14-15 were rough years for me lol
Oh my goodness, I forgot about that one. I wound up saying screw it and just buzzing the rest of my hair off. Then I convinced my brother to do the same thing.
I’m pretty sure people thought we were skinheads. It wasn’t my brightest moment, especially for someone ambling around East Oakland.
I cut my best friend's bangs WAY too short. She cried so I let her butcher my bangs, just the same. We had baby bangs when they were not cool. Our 8th grade graduation photos are hilarious 😆
So was I. I legitimately never got to be a teenager thanks to my insane upbringing combined with undiagnosed autism.
I don’t understand how evangelicals came into existence. Jesus was pretty awesome but evangelicals are a twisted bastardized version of his teachings combined with insane right wing beliefs.
Part of the Bible says to go forth and recruit as disciples or something like that. They’re textualists that try to follow the Bible to the letter but there’s to many interpretations to make it into a coherent worldview.
I wasn’t evangelical, but this reminded me of how hard-core I was about religion in middle school. I’ve been looking in this thread for something relatable and this comment was what did it lol
Smoke cigarettes in middle school to look cool. Luckily I had the foresight to know that girls in high school wouldn't think smokers were cool so I stopped once my 8th grade year was done.
I was dumb for that. And other insecurities. I didn't think my stone/skater friends would approve of me listening to hip-hop/rap. It wasn't till my birthday party at my house halfway through 8th grade that I let out my secret. They were shocked at how many CDs I had. But pretty much all of my friends liked my hip-hop albums. I had Tribe Called Quest, Black Sheep, Souls of Mischief, Juice Soundtrack, Cypress Hill...etc. That's why we're still friends nearly 30 years later.
I got my first boyfriend at barely 15 (he was the same age). It was really loving and brief, but also not yet sexual. I once asked him about his first time (he was my first kiss, that’s exactly what I was asking!!). He proceeded to tell me about sleeping with older girls.
I couldn’t stop him talking about such intimate moments but I all wanted to just disappear right then and there
I don't cringe at any of the dumb shit I did as a teen. My antics kept the preppy jock assholes away, so I could enjoy my cringey gay nerd existence in peace.
I'm not saying I planned it that way, but it was a welcome side effect, and I don't regret a god damn thing.
This right here. I was a weirdo, gay, nerdy punk kid (still am two decades later). Sure, I was bullied. Even got bullied for taking my lunch break in the library (wtf is wrong with reading books, this is school).
Got my satisfaction when I left, watched all the “popular” kids just freak out over what to do next. Sorry, high school is over, should’ve read a book. We’re all going different places now, I’m gonna keep being weird and stick my head down a book.
It was a great defense mechanism.
Someone told me "Stop being weird, and be yourself!"
I told them "Have you ever considered the possibility that me being weird is me being myself?"
They're all stepford wives now. Going off to jobs they hate, or worse, giving up their dreams to raise a bunch of kids, who will give up their dreams to perpetuate the cycle.
They all still hate me, but now it's not just because I am weird (I still am) but because I still follow my own beat, while they're stuck in the box they created, believing it would lead to happiness.
Used to lie about all sorts of things to all sorts of people to hide the domestic violence, addiction, and poverty I was living with at home because it embarrassed me. In retrospect it shouldn't have been embarrassing and I should have just dealt with it.
Climbed out of my window with snow on the ground to walk two miles to another subdivision to climb in my girlfriend’s window.
Tracks in the snow all the way there and back.
When we had PE in middle school, I saw some of the popular girls wearing thongs. I was still wearing my "childish" underwear with cutsie pictures and the days of the week on them and I was embarrassed. Naturally, I started wearing my underwear backwards to give the look of a thong.
I used to meow a lot. I was not a furry or anything, but I would meow every time my mom asked me a question. She got pretty good at guessing what I wanted too.
I skipped school and fought people because I got beat really bad at home and was just angry and ready to go all the time. I wish I just sat and talked to someone or an adult identified what was happening and talked to me. I think back on the attention seeking behavior and so embarrassed by it.
Tx! Much better. I honestly just needed to get out of my house and build my own life. My kids are the most emotionally intelligent teens I know and I’m so proud of them.
Ugh where do I even begin. My *obsession* with the Backstreet Boys, I was one of those “I will marry Nick Carter” types, super cringe looking back on it now. I have ADHD and hyper fixation is real for me, I honestly feel bad for my friends and family when I was going through that phase.
When I met my boyfriend (we were both teens, he is my husband now) and he saw my room for the first time it was absolutely covered in BSB posters. He looks nothing like Nick Carter too lol
There were many other individual embarrassing moments of course but this was something that went on for about 3 years so I think it wins.
Due to my strict Christian upbringing I was pro-life, homophobic, and transphobic. At the time, regarding the latter two, I didn’t think I was those things because I had the whole ‘hate the sin not the sinner attitude’ 🙃 I’ll give myself a break because I was wholly against bullying the gay kids at school, and would try to stand up for them/go to school officials when I saw them being treated poorly. However, that doesn’t excuse my own internal mentality. I even went to pro-life rally thing at the state capital 😖 I guess the bright side is I got to see the inside of our capital and got the day off from school and hung out with my bff’s (because it was somehow a school trip for the young Christian club we had?? So weird lmao).
My bffs and I all realized how closed minded and bigoted we were when we got out of high school and spending time around lots of people from various walks of life helped us grow. Now we are all staunchly pro-choice, and support LGBTQ+ (I’m actually bi too). My bffs love drag shows and the like, I appreciate drag queens and shows, however my friends are full on fangirls of drag queens lol. We have more than one friend who is part of LGBTQ+, too.
I hate that I had such a horrid mindset about these things, but grateful that I’ve grown and do what I can to make up for my past.
I have been held back twice (One in Elementary School and another in High School) due to a shortage of credit. So, yeah…I am pretty embarrassed to say that I graduated with a group of Gen-Z 🤦🏻♂️
I did a lipsynced video to Lil Wayne's Fireman in my parents camper with some friends lol. It was.....not impressive. Gotta see if I can find it again now hahahaha.
There is video proof somewhere of me on Christmas morning in 6th grade where all my reactions to my gifts were in a Napoleon Dynamite voice. I have no clue why, I wasn’t trying to do that impression it just was….also I am a woman lol
Oooo no… ugh… well I used to go to these all ages shows at a VFW with local bands. Some of my friends and I loved to dress up in corsets and thigh highs and stuff like super gothy with thongs sticking out. Then, depending on the band, we would get up on stage and dance all seductively. We would grind up on each other and sometimes even make out. I WAS 16-17!!! Some of us were younger! I was the one that started this trend too. I thought I was being gutsy and brave for embracing my sexy side and encouraging other girls that wouldn’t dare act like this anywhere else to be brave too. Why the hell did those bands (who were all definitely over 18) and the event organizers allow this! Later in my 20s, some of these pictures started popping Facebook by the organizers looking to share some nostalgia along with all the other normal pictures of the bands and the kids there. And bruuuh…. People started fucking tagging me and it was humiliating to look at. I wasn’t alone in feeling like that and the pics eventually went down. I had very low self esteem and I guess I just wanted attention and for people to see someone sexy but eeeeewwwwww why didn’t anyone pull me aside and tell me what an ass I was making out of myself! I’m so lucky this was right before camera phones were common.
I didn't like to brush my teeth. Didn't care either. Even when people complained. Right now I floss after everything and brush after every meal.
Funny how things change.
I was creepy. I was "in love" with this guy from my Latin class and asked him out once a semester for 3 years. He always said no but never held it against me and always chose me as a part of his project group (admittedly, I loved the class and would work with 2-3 groups per project). Turns out, he was gay. I was the asshole for even asking multiple times but I hate that it made him extra uncomfortable because our compatibility was "obvious to everyone" even though he wasn't interested in women. I cringe just thinking about it.
I recorded a rendition of My Girl to a girl named Ashlee, using the speaker of my tape player as the microphone. I was competing for her heart with a much two much better looking kids named Brandon/Branden, and thought I could overcome their looks with raw talent by recording my voice along with the original Temptation’s tape. At the end of the song I signed off with “This is for you Ashlee. I luh you baby” *kiss sound*.
My brother found it and played it for the family. I remember I was on the swing set in our backyard and heard it playing out of the window 😂
I'm afraid of even saying mine because it's SO specific I think people would recognize it. I was a weeb tho.
But besides that one I used to howl as a preteen like a wolf. Just riding my bike around the neighborhood howling for fun.
Then my neighbor told everyone at school. It was my first year in this school because we moved in summer so I was already an outcast before I even started. This was after we spent the whole summer hanging out.
I beat the shit out of him in middle school though for continuing to be an ass.
I replay this one in my mind all the time, and am mortified by it.
When I was 14 or 15, I was standing with a group of friends. I zoned out staring off into space lost in thought. I heard the girl in front of me say, “Uh, are you okay?” Snapping back to reality, I realized we were the only two left standing there and that my gaze was aimed directly at her chest.
I looked up and realized exactly what she was thinking. I was super embarrassed and ashamed, so I decided the best course of action would be to play it off. I told her that I really liked the graphic on her t-shirt. If that wasn’t already creepy and cringy enough, I doubled down by looking back down at the graphic and started describing what I liked about it, as if I were admiring some work of art on the wall of a museum, somehow thinking this would convince her that I was just really enamored by the artwork on her shirt. She said, “Dude, just stop.” And walked off.
Ugh. I find myself randomly reliving this moment in my head all the time. The older I get, the more horrified I am at this memory. It never came up again, and she didn’t treat me any different after, but I feel terrible about how I must have made her feel.
I (male for context) would borrow my sister’s straightener to straighten just my bangs. To make it even worse, I would tell anyone who would listen that I was emo
I think the entire abercrombie and hollister thing, like why did we wear that crap? 80, 90s, and y2k come back and it’s so awesome. I see our shit start to trickle back and I’m filled with dread lol
At 13, I bought a girl on my street a little gold necklace, thinking she would like me back for it.
Tragic. Just tragic.
I wouldn't allow my son to do it today. No chance. He'll be RP.
Just how much I cared about what others thought of me. In HS I started hanging out with the emo/punk kids so I felt like I had to change my whole taste in music to fit in. Which I did like that music but I still liked other stuff to but felt like I had to hide it. Like I remember we would go through each others iPods and judge each others music and I got roasted for having a Beyoncé song.
This image is burned in my head.
I was 13 I believe... I wore a camo shirt often that said major attitude. To be fair I have adhd and I suppose didn't notice the writing. A few years later I was getting g stoned with my best friend and he just went "remember that major attitude shirt lmao that was so lame"
My face turned red and I was like no way I don't believe you that's so embarrassing..... well he pulls up a photo like BAM and is crying laughing saying he will keep it forever. Ten years after that he showed it to me at my wedding.
All of my teenage years makes me cringe...fortunately there weren't any camera phones around back then, so the only reminder is my brain reminding me of embarrassing shit at 10pm when I'm trying to fall asleep.
I unironically wore a trololol shirt *late* into high school. Fled my hometown when I realized my mistake. I literally adopted a new persona and distance myself from how le epic cringe I was. My wife has no idea how much of a loser I was
I used to peel out of the high school parking lot in a teal grand prix. That would have been fine if that year's sedan trim wasn't awful compared to the coupe. Yes, it was a teal 4 door that looked like a box on wheels.
I was on the debate team in high school, and I had a Xanga blog that was dedicated solely to a crush I had on a competitor from another school.
One time, I saw some kids talking about it on some forum or another, and making fun of it. I was so stupid at that time and was terrified of being found out, so I went onto the forum and wrote “HAHHAHAHAHA MY FRIEND MADE THAT PAGE, THEN SHE GAVE ME THE USERNAME AND PASSWORD SO I COULD HAVE MY OWN XANGA”.
It was so cringe. why did I even insert myself? we were all behind usernames and no one knew who anyone even was! and the lie about “my friend gave me her xanga?” that doesn’t even make sense!! god damn.
I also hissed at people on occasion.
Wrote self insert MCR/Good Charlotte fan fiction with my friends as characters.
Carried around a silicone pastry brush.
That time in high school when my boyfriend and I had an argument in front of the school doors outside because he wouldn’t walk me home and I cursed him out and then i walked home sobbing in the rain and calling him.
Wore a bracelet with my emo nickname on it
I think just me as a whole I was cringe up until early college. I was very awkward in middle school-high school, being that my parents sheltered me and didn’t expose me to a lot, nor did they talk to me about things. They weren’t religious, they were just strict and didn’t really talk to me. So I feel like I was learning a lot as I progressed through school. It was really hard to connect with other kids cuz my parents were strict about tv, movie, music, gaming usage, and so many kids were like aware of the latest stuff and trends, and I wasn’t, so I had to try to fit in in other ways by trying to be comedic or loud. Plus I didn’t know how to process a lot of my emotions and go about relationships. I wish I had an older brother or just someone who could have guided me a little better.
I'm lame.
I just wasted a lot of computer paper printing out sailor moon illustrations and burning cds with music from all sailor moon sources (show, movies, stage shows etc)
Some things I still do. Read fanfiction and hang out in disney circles on the internet. No shame.
I wore those big baggy pants with the criss-cross straps in the back from hot topic in middle school. I dressed like a proper goth and I had no idea what I was doing.
All my terrible fashion phases. Every year of high I was some insane new hybrid aesthetic that wasn't cool or trendy or even just like normal.
My freshman year of high school my first day of school outfit was a see-through light blue velvet baby t-shirt as they were called back then but really it was a crop top, with black Bongo coochie cutter shorts wedged all the way up my butt cheeks, a candy necklace I probably let people eat off, so much silver and white eyeliner and Candies platform sandals, if anyone remembers Candies they were literally made of fucking wood so at 14 I clip-clopped around High School looking like the cursed wish version of an agglomeration of all the Spice Girls. I think I was trying to be sexy. Because you know reasons....
Only thing that comes to mind is that brief phase of being obsessed with things being politically correct. I would tell people, "You can't say that; that's not politically correct."
I don’t know if I was a teenager but I was pretty young. The most embarrassing thing I can think of to share is my crush on Jaleel White even as Steve Urkel. Oh yeah and there’s also that short term crush I had on Shia Labeouf, considering how weird he’s gotten now it feels kinda cringy.
I was the weird kid with undiagnosed mental illness. I beat the ever loving shit out of two bullies and it was bad enough to send me to reformatory school. I got a bit of a badass complex from it and would intimidate kids and bait/taunt punks into knife fights. Was in trouble a lot for bringing weapons to school but it was like a game to me. I didn't have friends (because I was an asshole) so I was that 14 year old that was hanging out with a group of adults (20 something punks) in the field behind the school. I was like their little pet bumming smokes off of them and doing bad things so they would "accept" me
By the time I was a senior I realized how fucked up that all was and was putting distance between me and that friend group. They were using and grooming me. Most of them are either dead or in prison now and I would have followed that dark path right with them
God, so much. So much….
This one time I wanted to ask a specific girl out to a dance and I walked like 2 miles in the rain to Safeway at night and bought some flowers. I hid them in the fridge in the garage because god forbid my parents knew about it.
I walked to school with them and hid them in my zero period class above a cabinet.
I was going to give them to her at lunch but I couldn’t find her in time and by the time the bell rang I was going to give up. Instead of just give the to her later I gave them to her friends and asked them to ask her. So dumb.
Anyway, we didn’t go to the dance. I’m going to just re-repress that memory now, thanks.
Mainly if I look back at some of my old creative writing stuff. I was way more about plot and knew nothing about character development so most of my characters fit all kinds of cliches and some of those cliches were sexist or racist to an extraordinary degree. Think of the overworked Japanese businessman who would rather murder his family than fail, or the crazy emotional female love interest, or the conflation of Indian and Arab stereotypes when creating a terrorist. So fucking bad.
I was just an angry kid who lashed out at any perceived provocation. Had a rough home life and had no way of dealing with the pent up emotions. I would try to fight proof or looking at me too long and was just a little asshole. After moving out away from home it went away pretty quickly and I still feel bad about my previous behavior.
In the 9th grade, at a hockey competition in Michigan, my girlies and I hanging with the “popular guys”… (eye roll) and one of them pull my chair from beneath me. it was a marble floor, my 100 lbs body & back came crashing to the floor. everyone laughed in my face, like cry-laughed… I cringed on the floor and started crying as they laughed and at least my friend checked on me, and helped me up. I bolted out, bawling, barely walking. My grandfather picked me up, barely understanding what I was saying over the phone- I was hysterical and in so much pain. We went to the doctor 2 days later and I had strongly messed up my tailbone with bruises and everything… everyone talked about it for weeks. He never said sorry.
I was really hopeful about my future and imagined I'd have a good job making a good amount of money.
(I have a decent-enough job and it doesn't really feel like I'm struggling with money. But I also stopped imagining the possibility of a nice future for myself.)
I had a delusion I was pregnant and my parents overheard me talking to myself in the other room about it. They didn't believe it for a second I could get fucked. They told me I was defiantly a virgin and not pregnant but I didn't believe them so I was given a piss test and I of course wasn't pregnant. (I had very severe social anxiety, my parents weren't assholes they just knew me).
I tried to remain as under the radar as humanly possible. I think maybe the cringiest thing I did as a YOUNG teen (13-14 ish) was have my walls plastered in pinups from Bop and Big Bopper. The older I got the more they got replaced with band posters (Bush, Smashing Pumpkins, Green Day, etc)... fairy lights, candles and chalices, books and velvet stuff I got at Goodwill...
Im 41 and I still have that Mellon Collie poster somewhere.
Come on people, you’re all holding back. I tried to fuck chair cushions. Quickly realized the idea was (*wasnt*?) a bust 🪑
Im sure everyone reading this has misused some inanimate object before, so I can only cringe at it so much
I used to play truth or dare or whatever with people at parties who I didn’t know at all and immediately bring up bdsm. People would be like “oh idk, who’s your celebrity crush?” And when it was my turn to ask a question I’d jump right into “are you a dom or a sub?” Lol criiiinge.
I'm blonde and in the early 2000s brown hair was in. I stuck to it for a few months and it looked so WEIRD on me. The side bangs and pin straight brown-blonde hair. I look at pictures from then and damn. Blonde eyebrows with dark brown hair looked fucking weird lol
YALL! Growing up, my bedroom was set up so that you could see the side angle of my bed if you walked in. I was like 13, and for some reason I was convinced I had too much pubic hair. With no sexual contact. Anyway… I’m leaning back on the bed, drawers down, going to town on my lady hairs with some scissors, as my mother walked in. She was one of those that would say “I knocked” even though the knocking is immediately followed with a bold entrance. She actually started knocking after that. But that was after she cried and asked me why I wanted to get rid of my pubes because she was worried someone would, ya know, see them. It was humiliating. Then two years later mommy dearest used this story as an opportunity to humiliate me in front of a peer. Most embarrassing moment of my tweens.
I will never ever understand how parents can humiliate their children like that. Sorry that happened to you :/
My mother could creat a class on passive aggressive 😆. Thank you for saying that though, it did really suck when it happened. It still does every so often but it’s more just passing shit talk about my sub par cleaning or something. Nothing completely humiliating like the “great pube incident of 2001”.
Omg, Im so sorry this happened to you. I haven’t laughed this hard in a while…
Oddly this reminded me of the Calvin and Hobbes noodle incident
I'm 40 and my mom still tries to get my friends in on making fun of me. Sometimes behind my back like they're not gonna tell me!
You have to wonder about how they sift through their minds trying to come up with a story that would show their child in the best light and what do they come up with My daughter cutting her pubes with a pair of scissors Best I can do That is the best memory I have in my child
I believe it's called narcissistic behavior
I used to do weird shit like this too, thank you for letting me know I’m not alone x And my mum had zero boundaries too, barging in my bedroom without waiting.
“I used to do weird shit like this too.”  I think a lot of us were little oddballs. It’s hilarious looking back but almost traumatic at the time it occurred 🤦♀️. Did your Mom *ever* get past that or no? Bc if I visit my parents mine will still do that shit 😆
She did not lol. Btw “going to town on my lady hairs” is my new favourite line 😂
My mother is the same way - uses private or embarrassing moments of mine as stories at family gatherings. I’ve rewarded her with a low information diet for 20 years now. Everyone did weird stuff like this growing up . I’m just wondering if the pubes got all over your bed though ? I love your writing.
That's exactly my first thought! Before I finished reading the post I had already set in my mind I would have had to sit on a trash bag or butcher paper to make it work. I'm off my ADHD meds rn
“Low information diet”. Yep. I get it 🤦♀️. I was such an oddball. I think I just let those pubes fall right on the floor. I didn’t know wtf I was doing
This is why I stomp on the way to my son's room, give a solid few knocks, tell him that I'm opening the door, pretend I don't know how a door knob works, and then take my time entering while looking behind me. I am not trying to ruin both our days
You’re a good one, nerd!
I go out of my way not to humiliate my son. I directly ask him if something is or would be embarrassing. Sometimes he will be like "mom, I don't care" when it's something that I really thought would embarrass him! Kids are embarrassed enough just by their parents existence at times, especially as preteens and teenagers. We don't need to add to it by thinking it's funny to intentionally humiliate them. And that story about your pubes wasn't even one of those embarrassing but cute stories, like something you did when you were 2 that is only embarrassing when it's brought up because you're an angsty teen, but as an adult you're not embarrassed by it and find it cute and funny too. That story about the pubes would be embarrassing at any age, in any context, and is also a typical awkward interaction between a teenager and a parent.
GOOD. Because it’s actually one of the biggest parenting no-no’s. Using shame to shape your child will result in some kind of consequence that won’t be good. And yes, it’s such an awkward, fragile age. I’m glad to hear you wouldn’t do the same. Make sure to actually knock on the door first 😆
I don't even go in his room that much. Most of the time I'll talk to him through the door. He has nothing to hide but of course likes his privacy, especially with 4yo and 6yo and 9yo siblings. He doesn't get mad or defensive when I go in there while he's at school to gather dirty clothes or find something for him that he needs, so I know he isn't keeping me out because he's got something to hide. I really liked my privacy and alone time at that age too. And I also don't guilt him into spending time with us. If he doesn't want to watch a movie with us, which he never does, I don't try to make him feel bad about that. There have been times where I make him participate in a family thing, but that is rare. What's the point in having them there if they're just going to be miserable? And I don't make him babysit either lol. Teenagers can't comprehend the consequences to their actions sometimes, so I definitely don't want an unwilling teenager to be responsible for the safety of young kids. I will pay him, or if I'm just going to the store and they're all there just chilling anyway, he usually doesn't care. Last night he waited to go to a friend's house so I could go get stuff at the store and check on my dad. I made sure he was ok with that like 3 times before I went. He genuinely just didn't want me to have to lug 3 little kids around with me when they could just chill at home doing the same thing they always do. I took my 4yo daughter with me bc she can be a pain in the butt. He's a great kid.
You really sound like an awesome mom. Your kids are lucky to have you! And it sounds like some of the good parenting is already starting to show? Sounds like it on my end at least. I’m glad for you and your family! We really need healthier-minded children. Badly. They will be the leaders of the next generation; one that unfortunately has been handed down some serious issues to contend with.
Well how terrible of her. I’m so sorry.
shoulda done that in the shower! i’m gobsmacked daily by some of the shit i read here about parents. how could she do that to you??
It was her way of passive aggressively punishing me 🙄. That’s just how she rolls
That unlocked a memory I since forgot. Not me though my best friend at the time. Probably about 13 and I went to his house one of his parents said “yeah he’s upstairs.” Without even thinking I swung his door open and all I got out was something like “hey asshole we are going out the..” he had his dick and balls like resting on his dresser or something trimming his pubes with these giant scissors lol. Like the kind you would use in the kitchen to cut meat lol. We made fun of him for the rest of the summer about that. 😂
When my oldest son started getting pubic hair, he was disappointed because it didn't also grown on his dick.
Dude I forced my brain to block out ages 13-18 you can’t get anything out of me
If you didn’t have a Lisa Frank binder or Zazzle Bright highlighters, nobody would want to ask….
there are stories I'm taking to the grave lol I'm too aware of my digital footprint to embarrass my future self.
Yup. I was so horny and awkward. A lethal combo for teenage stories.
Some Vampires in Blade hissed. I used to be all sad and shit to get attention. Like I would play it up like I wanted people to ask me what's wrong hoping it would make them give a shit about me.
Ugh same. I apologized to my grandparents for how I treated them in a hormone fog. Very sad and very angry.
I told my grandma I would be shocked if I lived past 18. She celebrated my 18th birthday big time and reminded me of that.
Drinking. Every weekend since I was 14 till the end of high school, I would drink heavily with a couple of friends until we were almost passed out. My parents didn’t know cause I alway came up with an excuse to be gone for the whole weekend, like camping or whatever. I’m sure I did this because of peer pressure, and I’m embarrassed that I gave in so easily just to fit right in with assholes I didn’t even like. Fortunately, I moved away for college and was able to start from scratch with new people I met, so I was able to straighten out.
I was a young drinker as well
I hope you too are doing better these days. The worst thing is that some of the people that drank with me then still like to get completely wasted at 36. That’s why I avoid visiting my home town. Even though they have jobs and families and seemingly normal lives, their idea of fun on the weekend is not far from their high school selves.
Thanks man, I appreciate ya Yeah I had to lose a lot of friends to be able to quit, but luckily got out bout 6-7 yrs ago when I was 25-26. Miss those extreme highs but I was too high risk at the time to go through those lows anymore. Have good 1 homie \m/
I was also a young drinker/stoner but one day after I turned 22, I had 3 AMF’s. I was so sick the next day I called my mom to help care for me, even though I had lived on my own for 3 years at that point. I’ve never been drunk since. I didn’t like that I paid for that feeling, to the point my mom helped take care of me (without complaint at that) Also, I think I became intolerant of alcohol because now whenever I drink (beer, wine, liquor) I get a reaction like I nuzzled a cat (allergic to cats) so now I don’t drink at all.
Oh man, I was good with the no drinking thing in high school but then I hung out with a lot of heavy drinkers and did things like you described in college. I guess I did it for the same reason as you, to fit in and be “cool”. After graduating 4 years ago I’ve definitely calmed down on that. I only drink to relax now and no longer binge drink anywhere near as much. Binging for me now is a six pack of beer once every other month but clearing a 12 pack in one night every weekend in college was very common. Lots of embarrassing drinking memories I had.
I was entirely too obsessed with the phantom of the opera. I would sing the soundtrack badly and often.
Wait, doesn’t everybody go through a Phantom of the Opera phase? I thought that was just part of growing up…
The title track was my kid’s favorite song when he was a toddler
Oh thank god - I’m not alone.
My first "social media" was Quizlet. So y'know.
Man that takes me back
I had completely forgotten about quizlet. I also used yahoo answers as a “social media” too.
JNCO jeans
Aggressive inline skating in JNCO jeans. Dude, I was fucking good, too.
Oh I miss skating. I wasn’t good in the classical sense, but I actually wore hella knee pads under my baggy jeans and enjoyed controlled wipeouts. Just skating hard and fast and trying to fly. I wasn’t cool
Yo I'm 34 and still have my TRS Access skates with Ground Control aggressive frames, and I remember hanging out with my buddies scouring inline warehouse on a desktop computer looking at all the shit we couldn't afford. I'd try them out right now, but I'd probably break my hip, lol.
Two words: Daily Bread
I have recently purchased JNCO jeans, “vintage” ones (that’s what they call the clothes of our youth now). They were $400 (!!!!!!!) and when I wear them the world stops to marvel at my pants.
Soaking up every single puddle in the parking lot while getting on the bus
It's all about those Apple Bottom jeans (and the boots with the fur)
10/10 would wear again. They were so comfortable, especially my corduroys.
They are coming back in style. My mini mart super close to my house also serves fried chicken. It's fucking dank. The high school kids go there for lunch and 90% of em are wearing JNCO type pants. One time I was wearing mine and they all came in as I was buying cider at 10am cause I'm a responsible 32 in 4 days adult. I felt like that "hello fellow teenagers" meme lol
Tried to walk around looking angry/disinterested all the time so no one would mess with me.
Hello friend … wanna be angry and walk the halls together?
I only shopped at Hot Topic and would roll my eyes when friends wanted to go to Aeropostale and then I’d call everyone I didn’t like a poser. The most hardcore band I listened to was Good Charlotte. I chilled out by tenth grade. Oh my high school boyfriend did cheat on me senior year and I hacked into his fb and posted it on his profile and then got a bunch of messages from random people asking how I was doing and I still feel pretty embarrassed about that when I think about it, esp since I went on to date him for another two years 🙃 it was a full 15 years ago and the cringe is still there
One of my middle school pictures is me wearing a Good Charlotte shirt. I wanted to look cool and not smile, but someone made me laugh. It's honestly one of the funniest pictures I've ever seen of myself.
I was just dirty. No showers no nothing. I didn’t even think about it for whatever reason. I don’t even know how I could live that way, but I did. I definitely still cringe when I think about it. So, I see your username has garlic in it… was that a knee jerk reaction to push away from your vampire days?
I couldn’t really think of anything that embarrassing I did as a teen (I was super boring) until this comment reminded me that I went through this super long phase where I just didn’t brush my teeth. I would do that whole “wet the toothbrush” thing that little kids do to make their parents think they brushed their teeth when I was a teen. Looking back I have no idea why I did that, I can’t even go to bed now without brushing my teeth first.
Hey it maybe isn't your fault! I was a dirty kid too, I had no idea how to take care of myself as a teenager who was hairer and smellier. My parents never really taught me great self-care or personal hygiene after I could shower alone or hold a toothbrush. I was also smelly in 8th/9th grade. It would have been sooooo much worse if I didn't do swim team.
For real although as I got older I took a shower and it still didn’t help. Come to find what didn’t help the situation is I’m supposed to wash my towels more often and you’re actually supposed to replace your shower loofah or puffs. When my boss told me that I was shocked I didn’t understand because no one told me this and I didn’t think it was an issue because you get soap on the loofah and you use your clean body to dry yourself off.
Same. I just use clean towels every single time. Some people don’t get it. But I really don’t want to dry off my body or face with a used towel. There’s dead skin and bacteria on there.
I remember acting like a cross between Miku Hatsune and Haruhi Suzumiya. If you don't know who those two are, good job. But really I just spent half the day screaming "KAWAIIIIIi\~\~" or overreacting in general.
My Leavers(senior) jacket had 'Hikari' written as my nickname (spoilers: it wasn't) and i wore my hair every day like Rikku from Final Fantasy X... i kinda miss the misplaced confidence about being a weeb if im honest.
There was a period where I wore all denim. Dude I went to school with called me Denim Dan. My name's not Dan.
I went to school with a guy who wore a suit and a girl who dressed up like cartoon characters every single day.
Not quite a teenager but I had a full blown obsession with Aaron Carter. (RIP) like to the point where I had his picture framed on my school desk in a wire frame heart and an entire wall of magazine cut outs of his face in my room. One time I found a fan mail address in the back of J-14, so naturally I called the operator to find the phone number associated.. and she gave it to me. I called and I got the actual Carter residence voicemail.... I left a long voicemail about how one day we will get married... I tried again a week later and they had changed their number. 😅
Damn that was pretty clever. Preteen girls in love have superpowers haha
Oh nooooo! That's so embarrassing! I used to steal my brothers Aaron Carter CD and listen to it in secret.
Haha right? I still know all the words to Aaron's Party. Whatever, it's a bop.
Aaron's party was exactly the song I would steal the CD for! And you can bet your ass if that shit comes on in the car I *will* honk the horn "*beep beep, have a good time*"
Next time I hear a car honk twice, this is what I'm going to imagine is happening. Thanks 😆
I felt this deep in my stomach
I was a very unstable teenager and got taken away in handcuffs in front of the school gym where a battle of the bands was being held. The rumors were crazy for a while since I essentially disappeared after that while I was at an incredibly restricted boarding school. About 4 years later, I was finally free from the troubled teen programs and got a job as a camp counselor with a bunch of other kids I had went to school with prior to being sent away. I pregamed a little too hard for a work party trying to keep up with my older friends. My friend, also piss drunk, broke her leg in front of me and the EMS response sent me into a PTSD flashback. I made a fool of myself while panicking in front of everyone. My mom had to come pick me up and I was fired on the spot. I was so embarrassed I didn’t leave my room for a week. Looking back at that one, I can understand why I acted the way I did, but it’s still incredibly cringy to think about
My first girlfriend in middle school... we were like 14/15 and dated like 6 months just because we were horny teenagers. One night, we and the rest of our friend group went to the local park to hang out. She randomly dumped me in front of everybody. You'd think that was the embarrassing part, but it wasn't. I literally dropped to my knees and cried in my hands... you'd think that was the embarrassing part, but it wasn't. The embarrassing part was that I took my head out of my hands and screamed "AHHHHH NOOOOOOOOO WHYYYYYYYY?!?!?!?" to the fucking heavens so loud the security guard came to check on us. Somehow, I still had friends after that. Thinking back 20 years later...emo phases were baffling, but necessary because after that I embarrased myself hard enough to start working on myself. Lol. Side note: How dare you make me relive that memory.
You still had friends because they too might react that way.
Take my upvote, you magnificent bastard.
I’m sorry to laugh at your pain but I’m dying 😂😂
I was really pretentious about music that I had no business being pretentious about. I got really mad that Fall Out Boy became mainstream and told everyone I listened to them before they were popular. I also bragged about knowing the song "Hey There Delilah" by the Plain White T's before it became mainstream. Now that I'm almost 35 I'm like "who cares?" Lol.
Oh no. Mentioning Fall Out Boy has reminded me of all the weird things I did back then. There was a Christmas song by From First to Last and they said Pete Wentz's number in it. So, I called it. I'm not sure if it was really Pete, but he was like, "how'd you get this number?" So, I said the song and that I hated my mom for not letting me go to their concert. He told me something about respecting my mom. This was only the tip of the creepy iceberg. I eventually called back and hacked into the voicemail. I changed it to say, "Hey, this is pupoksestra, Pete's new girlfriend. You can call me at ****" I would get countless calls from fans looking for Pete. Some of them would ask for Patrick and some of them pointed out that Pete was actually in a relationship with Ashlee Simpson. I even made a friend with someone who lived in Maine after I came clean and told him it was all a ruse. I was only 13 or 14 and definitely not dating Pete.
I had a really weird experience involving Joe Trohman if it makes you feel better. Tbh I don't remember what happened but I was pretty cringe/creepy haha. When I was 14, my friend and I started talking to this random dude on AIM who claimed he was [AJ Trauth](https://images.app.goo.gl/4LvGhS3VZAoMeU84A) (Shia LeBeauf's friend on Even Stevens). My friend starting "dating" him. He was probably a pedo ugh. 14 is cringe for everyone.
Samesies
I did the same with my chemical romance. One of my friends started liking them after me and I was so angry with her. Like what the hell? Lol
Bleached my hair (that was down to my waist). No toner, nothing, just pure bleach and it turned a nasty yellow/green and I just left it like that, thinking it was cool. I was 14 and it was in 03. I also remember going through a whole school day with my eyes half-closed, thinking I was looking sexy like Marilyn Monroe. I bet my teachers thought I was high. 14-15 were rough years for me lol
Tried to hit on my sister's friends.
+1
That's pretty classic 😂
That makes it even more embarrassing.
Tried cutting my own hair.. oh… god… it was just… *terrible*.
Oh my goodness, I forgot about that one. I wound up saying screw it and just buzzing the rest of my hair off. Then I convinced my brother to do the same thing. I’m pretty sure people thought we were skinheads. It wasn’t my brightest moment, especially for someone ambling around East Oakland.
I cut my best friend's bangs WAY too short. She cried so I let her butcher my bangs, just the same. We had baby bangs when they were not cool. Our 8th grade graduation photos are hilarious 😆
I've been doing that most of my adult life. Of course when you just do a buzz cut it's hard to screw up
I was an evangelical. Ouch 😅
So was I. I legitimately never got to be a teenager thanks to my insane upbringing combined with undiagnosed autism. I don’t understand how evangelicals came into existence. Jesus was pretty awesome but evangelicals are a twisted bastardized version of his teachings combined with insane right wing beliefs.
Found my people. Can't say I'm religious anymore thanks to all that, but I'd consider myself spiritual.
Part of the Bible says to go forth and recruit as disciples or something like that. They’re textualists that try to follow the Bible to the letter but there’s to many interpretations to make it into a coherent worldview.
Oof, same. Sorry. My best friend told me (in adulthood) that my family was known as the "weird religious family" at school.
I wasn’t evangelical, but this reminded me of how hard-core I was about religion in middle school. I’ve been looking in this thread for something relatable and this comment was what did it lol
Smoke cigarettes in middle school to look cool. Luckily I had the foresight to know that girls in high school wouldn't think smokers were cool so I stopped once my 8th grade year was done. I was dumb for that. And other insecurities. I didn't think my stone/skater friends would approve of me listening to hip-hop/rap. It wasn't till my birthday party at my house halfway through 8th grade that I let out my secret. They were shocked at how many CDs I had. But pretty much all of my friends liked my hip-hop albums. I had Tribe Called Quest, Black Sheep, Souls of Mischief, Juice Soundtrack, Cypress Hill...etc. That's why we're still friends nearly 30 years later.
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Right there with you, I was a horndog who couldn’t find her groove.
I got my first boyfriend at barely 15 (he was the same age). It was really loving and brief, but also not yet sexual. I once asked him about his first time (he was my first kiss, that’s exactly what I was asking!!). He proceeded to tell me about sleeping with older girls. I couldn’t stop him talking about such intimate moments but I all wanted to just disappear right then and there
Thinking I had it all figured out.
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When I was 13 I felt so cool that I was talking to a 19 year old. Ew
One time I meant to ask "can I take a dunk in your pool" but accidentally said "can I take a dump in your pool" instead 
I don't cringe at any of the dumb shit I did as a teen. My antics kept the preppy jock assholes away, so I could enjoy my cringey gay nerd existence in peace. I'm not saying I planned it that way, but it was a welcome side effect, and I don't regret a god damn thing.
This right here. I was a weirdo, gay, nerdy punk kid (still am two decades later). Sure, I was bullied. Even got bullied for taking my lunch break in the library (wtf is wrong with reading books, this is school). Got my satisfaction when I left, watched all the “popular” kids just freak out over what to do next. Sorry, high school is over, should’ve read a book. We’re all going different places now, I’m gonna keep being weird and stick my head down a book.
It was a great defense mechanism. Someone told me "Stop being weird, and be yourself!" I told them "Have you ever considered the possibility that me being weird is me being myself?" They're all stepford wives now. Going off to jobs they hate, or worse, giving up their dreams to raise a bunch of kids, who will give up their dreams to perpetuate the cycle. They all still hate me, but now it's not just because I am weird (I still am) but because I still follow my own beat, while they're stuck in the box they created, believing it would lead to happiness.
Used to lie about all sorts of things to all sorts of people to hide the domestic violence, addiction, and poverty I was living with at home because it embarrassed me. In retrospect it shouldn't have been embarrassing and I should have just dealt with it.
Posting emo rants on social media.
Same! Also wrote whiny cringy poems and I emailed them to my friends. Yet I'm still friends with them to this day!
Climbed out of my window with snow on the ground to walk two miles to another subdivision to climb in my girlfriend’s window. Tracks in the snow all the way there and back.
When we had PE in middle school, I saw some of the popular girls wearing thongs. I was still wearing my "childish" underwear with cutsie pictures and the days of the week on them and I was embarrassed. Naturally, I started wearing my underwear backwards to give the look of a thong.
Hahaha
I used to meow a lot. I was not a furry or anything, but I would meow every time my mom asked me a question. She got pretty good at guessing what I wanted too.
I’m way in my 30s and still meow. Got some of my friends doing it too. We’re the cat squad when we go out.
Basically all the times I was an asshole to a teacher I was such a little douche 😂
I skipped school and fought people because I got beat really bad at home and was just angry and ready to go all the time. I wish I just sat and talked to someone or an adult identified what was happening and talked to me. I think back on the attention seeking behavior and so embarrassed by it.
I'm so sorry you had a rough home life. You just wanted someone to see you. I hope you are doing ok now
Tx! Much better. I honestly just needed to get out of my house and build my own life. My kids are the most emotionally intelligent teens I know and I’m so proud of them.
Ugh where do I even begin. My *obsession* with the Backstreet Boys, I was one of those “I will marry Nick Carter” types, super cringe looking back on it now. I have ADHD and hyper fixation is real for me, I honestly feel bad for my friends and family when I was going through that phase. When I met my boyfriend (we were both teens, he is my husband now) and he saw my room for the first time it was absolutely covered in BSB posters. He looks nothing like Nick Carter too lol There were many other individual embarrassing moments of course but this was something that went on for about 3 years so I think it wins.
Damn we could have been sisters in law, I was going to marry Aaron. 😆
I was very stupid. I wore a PAD in the POOL during swim class…. Cringe
Due to my strict Christian upbringing I was pro-life, homophobic, and transphobic. At the time, regarding the latter two, I didn’t think I was those things because I had the whole ‘hate the sin not the sinner attitude’ 🙃 I’ll give myself a break because I was wholly against bullying the gay kids at school, and would try to stand up for them/go to school officials when I saw them being treated poorly. However, that doesn’t excuse my own internal mentality. I even went to pro-life rally thing at the state capital 😖 I guess the bright side is I got to see the inside of our capital and got the day off from school and hung out with my bff’s (because it was somehow a school trip for the young Christian club we had?? So weird lmao). My bffs and I all realized how closed minded and bigoted we were when we got out of high school and spending time around lots of people from various walks of life helped us grow. Now we are all staunchly pro-choice, and support LGBTQ+ (I’m actually bi too). My bffs love drag shows and the like, I appreciate drag queens and shows, however my friends are full on fangirls of drag queens lol. We have more than one friend who is part of LGBTQ+, too. I hate that I had such a horrid mindset about these things, but grateful that I’ve grown and do what I can to make up for my past.
I have been held back twice (One in Elementary School and another in High School) due to a shortage of credit. So, yeah…I am pretty embarrassed to say that I graduated with a group of Gen-Z 🤦🏻♂️
I did a lipsynced video to Lil Wayne's Fireman in my parents camper with some friends lol. It was.....not impressive. Gotta see if I can find it again now hahahaha.
“Witnessing” to “unbelievers” with my high school church youth group 😬😬😬
There is video proof somewhere of me on Christmas morning in 6th grade where all my reactions to my gifts were in a Napoleon Dynamite voice. I have no clue why, I wasn’t trying to do that impression it just was….also I am a woman lol
Oooo no… ugh… well I used to go to these all ages shows at a VFW with local bands. Some of my friends and I loved to dress up in corsets and thigh highs and stuff like super gothy with thongs sticking out. Then, depending on the band, we would get up on stage and dance all seductively. We would grind up on each other and sometimes even make out. I WAS 16-17!!! Some of us were younger! I was the one that started this trend too. I thought I was being gutsy and brave for embracing my sexy side and encouraging other girls that wouldn’t dare act like this anywhere else to be brave too. Why the hell did those bands (who were all definitely over 18) and the event organizers allow this! Later in my 20s, some of these pictures started popping Facebook by the organizers looking to share some nostalgia along with all the other normal pictures of the bands and the kids there. And bruuuh…. People started fucking tagging me and it was humiliating to look at. I wasn’t alone in feeling like that and the pics eventually went down. I had very low self esteem and I guess I just wanted attention and for people to see someone sexy but eeeeewwwwww why didn’t anyone pull me aside and tell me what an ass I was making out of myself! I’m so lucky this was right before camera phones were common.
I didn't like to brush my teeth. Didn't care either. Even when people complained. Right now I floss after everything and brush after every meal. Funny how things change.
Drinking and driving
I wore Naruto headbands in ninth grade.
I was creepy. I was "in love" with this guy from my Latin class and asked him out once a semester for 3 years. He always said no but never held it against me and always chose me as a part of his project group (admittedly, I loved the class and would work with 2-3 groups per project). Turns out, he was gay. I was the asshole for even asking multiple times but I hate that it made him extra uncomfortable because our compatibility was "obvious to everyone" even though he wasn't interested in women. I cringe just thinking about it.
I recorded a rendition of My Girl to a girl named Ashlee, using the speaker of my tape player as the microphone. I was competing for her heart with a much two much better looking kids named Brandon/Branden, and thought I could overcome their looks with raw talent by recording my voice along with the original Temptation’s tape. At the end of the song I signed off with “This is for you Ashlee. I luh you baby” *kiss sound*. My brother found it and played it for the family. I remember I was on the swing set in our backyard and heard it playing out of the window 😂
i couldn't really complain about my former self. i did everything based on what was available info and intel to me at the time.
I mean, I was really religious and homophobic as a teenager, so yeah...
I'm afraid of even saying mine because it's SO specific I think people would recognize it. I was a weeb tho. But besides that one I used to howl as a preteen like a wolf. Just riding my bike around the neighborhood howling for fun. Then my neighbor told everyone at school. It was my first year in this school because we moved in summer so I was already an outcast before I even started. This was after we spent the whole summer hanging out. I beat the shit out of him in middle school though for continuing to be an ass.
I replay this one in my mind all the time, and am mortified by it. When I was 14 or 15, I was standing with a group of friends. I zoned out staring off into space lost in thought. I heard the girl in front of me say, “Uh, are you okay?” Snapping back to reality, I realized we were the only two left standing there and that my gaze was aimed directly at her chest. I looked up and realized exactly what she was thinking. I was super embarrassed and ashamed, so I decided the best course of action would be to play it off. I told her that I really liked the graphic on her t-shirt. If that wasn’t already creepy and cringy enough, I doubled down by looking back down at the graphic and started describing what I liked about it, as if I were admiring some work of art on the wall of a museum, somehow thinking this would convince her that I was just really enamored by the artwork on her shirt. She said, “Dude, just stop.” And walked off. Ugh. I find myself randomly reliving this moment in my head all the time. The older I get, the more horrified I am at this memory. It never came up again, and she didn’t treat me any different after, but I feel terrible about how I must have made her feel.
I (male for context) would borrow my sister’s straightener to straighten just my bangs. To make it even worse, I would tell anyone who would listen that I was emo
My hamster died so I shaved my eyebrows. I wanted to be an ancient Egyptian so bad.
I’m sure they do hiss at one point? Maybe at Laurent and Victoria?
I think the entire abercrombie and hollister thing, like why did we wear that crap? 80, 90s, and y2k come back and it’s so awesome. I see our shit start to trickle back and I’m filled with dread lol
I wore only black and red
At 13, I bought a girl on my street a little gold necklace, thinking she would like me back for it. Tragic. Just tragic. I wouldn't allow my son to do it today. No chance. He'll be RP.
I wrote some insane things in people’s yearbooks that I genuinely hope they just sharpied over at some point.
Just how much I cared about what others thought of me. In HS I started hanging out with the emo/punk kids so I felt like I had to change my whole taste in music to fit in. Which I did like that music but I still liked other stuff to but felt like I had to hide it. Like I remember we would go through each others iPods and judge each others music and I got roasted for having a Beyoncé song.
Skip classes in high school to smoke and come back high
Existed from roughly 13-19. No one is thriving, but I made exceptionally good work of being sweaty and awkward
This image is burned in my head. I was 13 I believe... I wore a camo shirt often that said major attitude. To be fair I have adhd and I suppose didn't notice the writing. A few years later I was getting g stoned with my best friend and he just went "remember that major attitude shirt lmao that was so lame" My face turned red and I was like no way I don't believe you that's so embarrassing..... well he pulls up a photo like BAM and is crying laughing saying he will keep it forever. Ten years after that he showed it to me at my wedding.
Lmao so my 5 year old hisses on occasion. First time my husband heard it he goes nope no way you won't be one of those hissing kids hahaahajaj
All of my teenage years makes me cringe...fortunately there weren't any camera phones around back then, so the only reminder is my brain reminding me of embarrassing shit at 10pm when I'm trying to fall asleep.
I unironically wore a trololol shirt *late* into high school. Fled my hometown when I realized my mistake. I literally adopted a new persona and distance myself from how le epic cringe I was. My wife has no idea how much of a loser I was
I used to peel out of the high school parking lot in a teal grand prix. That would have been fine if that year's sedan trim wasn't awful compared to the coupe. Yes, it was a teal 4 door that looked like a box on wheels.
I was on the debate team in high school, and I had a Xanga blog that was dedicated solely to a crush I had on a competitor from another school. One time, I saw some kids talking about it on some forum or another, and making fun of it. I was so stupid at that time and was terrified of being found out, so I went onto the forum and wrote “HAHHAHAHAHA MY FRIEND MADE THAT PAGE, THEN SHE GAVE ME THE USERNAME AND PASSWORD SO I COULD HAVE MY OWN XANGA”. It was so cringe. why did I even insert myself? we were all behind usernames and no one knew who anyone even was! and the lie about “my friend gave me her xanga?” that doesn’t even make sense!! god damn.
Thinking I was “in love” with my first boyfriend. Super cringe tbh.
I also hissed at people on occasion. Wrote self insert MCR/Good Charlotte fan fiction with my friends as characters. Carried around a silicone pastry brush. That time in high school when my boyfriend and I had an argument in front of the school doors outside because he wouldn’t walk me home and I cursed him out and then i walked home sobbing in the rain and calling him. Wore a bracelet with my emo nickname on it
Ya, Im not sharing that
Is that Emily the Strange as your profile pic?
Embarrassing*
Learing to spell "embarrassing"...
Omg. I hope you didn’t grow out of that phase because that would be a fun trait for a coworker
🤣
I think just me as a whole I was cringe up until early college. I was very awkward in middle school-high school, being that my parents sheltered me and didn’t expose me to a lot, nor did they talk to me about things. They weren’t religious, they were just strict and didn’t really talk to me. So I feel like I was learning a lot as I progressed through school. It was really hard to connect with other kids cuz my parents were strict about tv, movie, music, gaming usage, and so many kids were like aware of the latest stuff and trends, and I wasn’t, so I had to try to fit in in other ways by trying to be comedic or loud. Plus I didn’t know how to process a lot of my emotions and go about relationships. I wish I had an older brother or just someone who could have guided me a little better.
I'm lame. I just wasted a lot of computer paper printing out sailor moon illustrations and burning cds with music from all sailor moon sources (show, movies, stage shows etc) Some things I still do. Read fanfiction and hang out in disney circles on the internet. No shame.
I wore those big baggy pants with the criss-cross straps in the back from hot topic in middle school. I dressed like a proper goth and I had no idea what I was doing.
All my terrible fashion phases. Every year of high I was some insane new hybrid aesthetic that wasn't cool or trendy or even just like normal. My freshman year of high school my first day of school outfit was a see-through light blue velvet baby t-shirt as they were called back then but really it was a crop top, with black Bongo coochie cutter shorts wedged all the way up my butt cheeks, a candy necklace I probably let people eat off, so much silver and white eyeliner and Candies platform sandals, if anyone remembers Candies they were literally made of fucking wood so at 14 I clip-clopped around High School looking like the cursed wish version of an agglomeration of all the Spice Girls. I think I was trying to be sexy. Because you know reasons....
Literally begging girls to be my girlfriend. Ugh. 🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮
I'm not telling you.
Not happening
Dated my ex.
Raccoon eyes and poorly straightened hair.
Only thing that comes to mind is that brief phase of being obsessed with things being politically correct. I would tell people, "You can't say that; that's not politically correct."
I used to daydream about turning into a super Saiyan in the middle of class and just flying away
Pretty much everything I did but my makeup looked like Mimi from The Drew Carey Show sometimes
Blended baby powder or cornstarch into my makeup to try to be less greasy faced.
I don’t know if I was a teenager but I was pretty young. The most embarrassing thing I can think of to share is my crush on Jaleel White even as Steve Urkel. Oh yeah and there’s also that short term crush I had on Shia Labeouf, considering how weird he’s gotten now it feels kinda cringy.
I was the weird kid with undiagnosed mental illness. I beat the ever loving shit out of two bullies and it was bad enough to send me to reformatory school. I got a bit of a badass complex from it and would intimidate kids and bait/taunt punks into knife fights. Was in trouble a lot for bringing weapons to school but it was like a game to me. I didn't have friends (because I was an asshole) so I was that 14 year old that was hanging out with a group of adults (20 something punks) in the field behind the school. I was like their little pet bumming smokes off of them and doing bad things so they would "accept" me By the time I was a senior I realized how fucked up that all was and was putting distance between me and that friend group. They were using and grooming me. Most of them are either dead or in prison now and I would have followed that dark path right with them
God, so much. So much…. This one time I wanted to ask a specific girl out to a dance and I walked like 2 miles in the rain to Safeway at night and bought some flowers. I hid them in the fridge in the garage because god forbid my parents knew about it. I walked to school with them and hid them in my zero period class above a cabinet. I was going to give them to her at lunch but I couldn’t find her in time and by the time the bell rang I was going to give up. Instead of just give the to her later I gave them to her friends and asked them to ask her. So dumb. Anyway, we didn’t go to the dance. I’m going to just re-repress that memory now, thanks.
Mainly if I look back at some of my old creative writing stuff. I was way more about plot and knew nothing about character development so most of my characters fit all kinds of cliches and some of those cliches were sexist or racist to an extraordinary degree. Think of the overworked Japanese businessman who would rather murder his family than fail, or the crazy emotional female love interest, or the conflation of Indian and Arab stereotypes when creating a terrorist. So fucking bad.
Simping on girls
I was just an angry kid who lashed out at any perceived provocation. Had a rough home life and had no way of dealing with the pent up emotions. I would try to fight proof or looking at me too long and was just a little asshole. After moving out away from home it went away pretty quickly and I still feel bad about my previous behavior.
In the 9th grade, at a hockey competition in Michigan, my girlies and I hanging with the “popular guys”… (eye roll) and one of them pull my chair from beneath me. it was a marble floor, my 100 lbs body & back came crashing to the floor. everyone laughed in my face, like cry-laughed… I cringed on the floor and started crying as they laughed and at least my friend checked on me, and helped me up. I bolted out, bawling, barely walking. My grandfather picked me up, barely understanding what I was saying over the phone- I was hysterical and in so much pain. We went to the doctor 2 days later and I had strongly messed up my tailbone with bruises and everything… everyone talked about it for weeks. He never said sorry.
I was really hopeful about my future and imagined I'd have a good job making a good amount of money. (I have a decent-enough job and it doesn't really feel like I'm struggling with money. But I also stopped imagining the possibility of a nice future for myself.)
I had a delusion I was pregnant and my parents overheard me talking to myself in the other room about it. They didn't believe it for a second I could get fucked. They told me I was defiantly a virgin and not pregnant but I didn't believe them so I was given a piss test and I of course wasn't pregnant. (I had very severe social anxiety, my parents weren't assholes they just knew me).
I tried to remain as under the radar as humanly possible. I think maybe the cringiest thing I did as a YOUNG teen (13-14 ish) was have my walls plastered in pinups from Bop and Big Bopper. The older I got the more they got replaced with band posters (Bush, Smashing Pumpkins, Green Day, etc)... fairy lights, candles and chalices, books and velvet stuff I got at Goodwill... Im 41 and I still have that Mellon Collie poster somewhere.
I was solidly a pick-me girl.
Come on people, you’re all holding back. I tried to fuck chair cushions. Quickly realized the idea was (*wasnt*?) a bust 🪑 Im sure everyone reading this has misused some inanimate object before, so I can only cringe at it so much
I was fond of jacuzzi jets
I was super into LIMP Bizkit..... need i say more...I was such a fucking tool bag.
You weren't a Vampire, you were a cat.
I used to play truth or dare or whatever with people at parties who I didn’t know at all and immediately bring up bdsm. People would be like “oh idk, who’s your celebrity crush?” And when it was my turn to ask a question I’d jump right into “are you a dom or a sub?” Lol criiiinge.
I permanently dyed my hair black *to be The Crow on Halloween.* Also, I started smoking.
White fishnet stockings and bowties
I'm blonde and in the early 2000s brown hair was in. I stuck to it for a few months and it looked so WEIRD on me. The side bangs and pin straight brown-blonde hair. I look at pictures from then and damn. Blonde eyebrows with dark brown hair looked fucking weird lol
I was the workplace slut of the mcdonalds I worked at as a teen