I wasn't allowed to wear makeup or get my ears pierced until I was 13. I didn't care much about the makeup thing but I really wanted my ears pierced.

I think I was allowed to get my ears pierced when I was five, but didn't want to until I was eight. They did it with the needle, not the gun, and I remember looking in the mirror and noticing a pool of blood on the shoulder of my t-shirt. (Several years later, they got infected, and then I got scared to wear earrings for a while, and eventually the holes closed up. I put off getting them repierced for a while, because I remembered the blood from the first time, and then when I finally went a few years ago and they did it with the gun, I was really surprised at how easy it was.)

philosophy/zombie

"I think, therefore I....brainnnnnnnnnnnnsssssssssss...."

By the time I was 15 or 16, I did mom's makeup for special occasions because I was better at applying eye shadow and eye liner than her. You know those makeup kits that come out every holiday season that have a tray of something like 20 or 30 colors of eye shadow? I was given one of those every Christmas in my teens. One of those, and a lot of books.

(Nowadays, my parents give me MAC gift cards and a lot of books. Some things haven't changed.)

I was never not allowed to wear makeup, but my mom put off me getting my ears pierced until I eventually lost interest. I wore more makeup when I was 12 than I ever did in my 20s and 30s.

I wasn't allowed to wear makeup until I was 16, but I got my ears pierced when I was 7. It was the first and last time I got to do something before any of my friends.

Ears pierced when I was 9, and first experiments with hair color when I was 16.

I knew a family of three child actor/models. The youngest was prone to rough housing and getting toddler bruises and the other two weren't. Their Mom, despite requests from their agent, refused to restrict the kid. He did end up getting less print work than his siblings but oh well.

The Mom was a nut job for half a dozen other reasons, but on this point she always had the respect of a lot of people in our small town. Like, literally, she'd do something obnoxious and five minutes into the gossipy bitch session about it someone would say "Well, she DID pull Timmy out of modeling until he was older..."

I wore more makeup when I was 12 than I ever did in my 20s and 30s.

This is SO TRUE for me. Though I'd like to start wearing make up again. It might mean getting someone anyone to do a decent color match for foundation though.

I finally got my ears pierced when I was 20. But after some experiments with self-piercing got infected, I let them all grow over.