I am giving one to my co-worker whose daughter is quote, "Going Goth"

That's a great idea! I shall purchase one for my cow-orker's daughter (this is the one where the dad found me at work and said "I bet you listen to Evanescence. Do you think it's OK for a teenage girl to listen to?").

I didn't know I was goth, but I was, as much as I could manage. I would love to dress in a combo of 1940s and goth now, but I am actually a Lazy!Goth.

I'm a total late bloomer. It's only been in my thirties that I've had the confidence to unapologetically be who I am-- whether it's a slob on writing days or to the nines when the occasion warrants, because, as Jilli says in her video, it makes me happy.

I seem to be sliding into yoga-hippie, with just enough leather to keep 8-year-olds from beating me up for my lunch money. But I'm still looking forward to my copy of GCS arriving. (Why did I take the free, but slow, delivery option? Why?)

My high school senior year a switch flipped, and I stopped trying to make everybody else like me and decided to like myself. My look changed from inoffensive pastels, white Peter Pan collars and jumpers, hair kept shortish and "done", pink lipstick and a pat of powder to black, miniskirts, pointy boots, wide eyeliner, and long straight hair. Tiny tasteful jewelry was replaced with statement pieces, and the soft-spoken, easily-cowed personality grew a backbone.

I maintained my "look"--with updates and mods--through college and a brief career as an army officer's wife, *not* popular with the other wives or superior officers, as you might imagine. My downfall was two babies in less than a year. Getting myself showered, shampooed and decently covered with any regularity was an achievement, and by the time they were both in school, I'd got out of the habit of having a "look." Corporate conformity was necessary for employment, though I did lapse into less conforming outfits from time to time. I still have not reinstated a "look". But I wear what I like, what I feel comfortable in, and figure my personality is colorful enough to define me. In another life, perhaps I'd have been sartorially stronger.

I feel like I'm in drag if I wear straight-up girly clothes.

I think my only real "statement" in high school was having very short hair, like pixie short, in an era of big perms.

figure my personality is colorful enough to define me

That's where I've gotten to. I can't afford to have a "look".

I think my only real "statement" in high school was having very short hair, like pixie short, in an era of big perms.

Mine was the opposite-- long, straight, waist-length hair in that same era of the big perm.

my mother picked out my clothes until I was in college

I am actually a Lazy!Goth.

If this is a real term I am totally co-opting it for my own purposes.