It all happened when my best friend changed her profile picture on Facebook. I clicked “Like” instinctively, because I know she’s been through some stuff lately. But she had no idea what lay beneath; deep down, I know she could have tried a lot harder.
I didn’t want to say it at the time – but first of all, it’s a selfie. When a girl’s trying to make herself feel better for getting rejected from grad school, she shouldn’t make her profile pic a selfie. It’s hard to use fun filters on a grainy photo taken with her lousy iPhone 4. Though, to be honest, I’m not even sure an iPhone 5 plus Valencia could’ve saved this trainwreck.
Megan’s got a weird face shape, but she usually knows how to work with it. A deep side part and a few layers, and you can’t even tell her head is bigger than average. But she went with a trendy middle part, and now everyone can see the shape of her enormous jaw. As her friend, I only “Like” her when she’s making good choices. But I feel as though I’ve sent her the wrong message. A dangerous message.
Megan’s pale, but with the right makeup, she can really rock the retro glam look. This reddish-purple monstrosity makes her look like she just rubbed berry juice all over her mouth. Wait – she knows Peter can still see her profile pic even though she unfriended him, right? I knew I should have told her right away. This definitely isn’t going to make him regret leaving her. It’s probably already too late.
And then her facial expression: She’s staring right into the camera all bug-eyed and her mouth is twisted in this weird shape like it’s half-smile, half-duck face. She’s going for quirky, but she just looks strange. Do you realize how hard it is not to tell her what everyone else is thinking? But I can’t. Because I already “liked” it.
Fortunately, I don’t think this one will last long. Her grandmother’s been sick for the past few months, so any day now, she’ll change her profile pic to one of her and Grandma Katherine, label it #tbt, and talk about all the wonderful memories they shared during her long life. I just hope it happens soon, because I will be the first to “like” it; and this time, I will truly mean it.
Unless she is making a weird face in it, like she always does.
