once I was 7 years old

Wow. It's been seven years guys. 

Seven years ago today, I sat down on a much clunkier computer and started building this blog, all because my mom told me that I probably wouldn't keep it up for longer than two weeks, and I wanted to prove her wrong. I'm so glad that this is the only thing I've been right about. 

We've had an good time, haven't we? And we've all grown up (just a little bit though). When I started this, I was 13 years old, 5'1, and everything I knew came from old issues of Teen Vogue I bought at the library for $0.25. Now I'm 20, 5'8, and a hoarder who still has all of those magazines. My world has been broadened immensely, and my overall collection is getting a bit out of hand, but I'm still having the time my life here with all of you. 

Thank you for reading, liking, 
and always forgiving me for tragically failing at any kind of structure. 

You guys are the bomb.com

x Justina




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twenty years later...

me in 2013, on my 16th birthday

IT'S MY BIRTHDAY. I'm officially twenty years old, which, *SPOILER ALERT* means I'm not a teenager anymore. That's just...strange. I've been a -teen for seven years, and all of a sudden it just happened and the earth kept revolving and ...

*dramatic pause*

OK.


(I'm one of those annoying people who thinks age is an arbitrary concept, but I do realize the gravity of this moment, so I want to use it to send a single idea.)

My teenage years would not make for a great YA novel. I was never that angsty, mainly just hangry. I didn't have an identity crisis. I never got invited anywhere so I never had a "partying phase". I needed my mom's help to dye my hair purple. I was homeschooled and never took the SAT.  But I did get to do a lot of cool stuff. At 13 I started this blog, at 14 I was in Teen Vogue, at 15 I stood up for Barbie, and at 16 I graduated high school. At 17 I moved to Germany, when I was 18 I gave up my dreams of being a Disney Channel star, and this last year I got on a helicopter and spoke to crowds and finally learned how to thread eyebrows.

BIG PICTURE: Young people have an extraordinary capacity for greatness if people stop using their age as a barrier. 

So no, as of today I will no longer be an "extraordinary/incredible/talented/fill-in-your-preferred-adjective teen" - but I'm exactly who 13 year old me wanted to be.

5'8, green streaks,
and still talking to myself on the internet.  

x Justina



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we survived childhood | HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Happy BIRTHDAY baby, we officially survived childhood on the internet.

Five years ago today, a series of semi-related events led to a very fortunate outcome that none of us saw coming. In a very particular order, this is what happened:

- I decided to nag my mum one more time about starting a new blog

- I sat at the dining room table far longer than usual trying to come up with names

- My brother had a stroke of genius (watch the video)

- I drank coffee for the first time (this probably had something to do with it)

- "A Bent Piece Of Wire" was uttered out loud for the first time. 

- My mother challenged with six fateful words.

- I created the fourth gmail account of my young life.

- I didn't listen to my mum. 

Five years later, not listening to my mum is still one of the best decisions I ever made, and one I will probably never repeat because luck like this doesn't strike twice. 

Thank you for five years of absolute adventure, and here's to a million billion more.

x J 

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est. 1997

HI IT'S MY BIRTHDAY TODAY I AM 18 YEARS OF AGE

I'm now old enough to work at Walmart, date Tyga, and..um...buy lottery tickets? Exciting stuff.

Still not old enough to understand taxes though.

x J 

PS. BEFORE TURNING  18,  I LEARNED A LOT OF STUFF +  

MADE A VLOG ABOUT IT CLICK HERE 

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a matter of being marilyn//happy birthday ms. monroe

 tumblr

 
Everyone expects me to be an Audrey girl,

 but I never quite got there.

There are a lot of, well, dead people I wish I could meet, and Marilyn Monroe is one of them. 

I think she is truly one of the most fascinating Hollywood stories to ever exist. 

Because that is exactly what she is: a story. 

Or maybe a legend.

As Marilyn herself said often, 

the person she'd "turn on" wasn't her, just a finely tuned role. 

A quick change. 

When you think about that, it becomes apparent how truly talented she was. 

It has pained me for quite a while that people choose to focus on how she died, rather than how she lived. Even some 60-odd years after her death, we are still proving her point: "No one takes me seriously, and no one truly cares about me as a person." No one reads the stories written by her friends of her opening her door to whoever needed help, or her many hours spent collecting books for her personal library. We talk about her affairs, her marriages, her problems. When we discuss her style, we talk about that ridiculous white dress and the beauty mark, instead of her extensive collection of tailored basics and her secret blonde dye, which took 26 other shades to create. 

There was an art to being Marilyn Monroe that I have yet to see anyone properly replicate,

lookin' at you, Lana

or appreciate.

So on what would have been her 52nd birthday,

I ask that we move past the Warhol portrait,

it was fun the first eighty bajillion times we saw it on a tshirt

 that awful "My Week With Marilyn" film,

ugh

and why she isn't here today,

build a bridge and get over it

and celebrate the woman who was the original Hollywood Star.

"We are all of us stars, and we deserve to twinkle."

xx

Justina

ps.

whoever allowed a McDonalds to be put behind Marilyn Monroe's star on the Walk of Fame:

we are not friends.

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you've a serious case of benjamin button//HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM

photo by me

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM

You're not a regular mum.

You're a cool mum.

xx 

Justina

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tell 'em that it's my birthday

 someone should have seen it coming

IT'S MY BIRTHDAY WOO

I've been bedazzling this planet for 16 years and I have only just gotten started

now, cheesy television openers aside, 
here is my...

 16 THINGS I LOVE LIST:

1 color: what do we wear on wednesday's?

2 song: Daddy's Girl by Natalia Kills

3 rapper: Iggy Azalea

4 romcom: Made of Honor

5 book: Around the World with Auntie Mame 

6 tv show: All About Amy

7 shoes: silver docs

8 movie of the year: Warm Bodies

9 celebrity: Amy Childs

10 app: instagram

11 website: mine. duh.

12 school subject: world history

13 good luck charm: pink casio

14 something I love now I hated last year: high top converse

15 favorite youtuber: Harries twins because I have eyes

16 something I want to do before my next birthday: travel outside the country 

*16 1/2 favorite day in the year: Oct 2nd

xx,

Justina

(now 16)

Ps. WE ARE TWO OFF 

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