Where have the awkward years of braces and blemishes gone?

OPINION: As Lianna Perdis, 16, launches her own make-up range, Vanessa Brown asks where the awkward teenage years of spots and braces have gone.

Does the ‘awkward age’ still exist? Picture: Instagram/Kylie Jenner.

OPINION

WHEN I was 16, I had a face full of pimples and when I wasn’t wearing my oversized school uniform, I’d be hiding under a billowy T-shirt to disguise my ‘puppy fat’.

I was awkward and shy ... pretty standard teenage behaviour.

I’d blush at the mere mention of my name in class, and the thought of going to the shops or even to dinner with my parents made me “want to die”.

My make-up (when I dressed up for a party) was more on par with The Joker than the expert liner and perfect pout seen on one of the Jenner sisters, and my clothing sense — well, best leave that area alone.

My memory of being 16 was why it was so confronting to meet Lianna Perdis last week. The daughter of Napoleon Perdis, she is the face behind their latest range of cosmetics, Total Bae.

Lianna says she’s just a normal teenager. Picture: Supplied

Ten years my junior, she is more confident than I am now at 26.

Taking centre stage and commanding the room with her on-brand pitch about Total Bae, she looked more like a seasoned spokeswoman than a high school student.

Lianna presented her new make-up range to a room of media. Picture: Supplied

Lianna says the new range is ‘young and fun’ and insists she’s ‘just a normal girl’ back in her new home of Greece. Picture: Supplied

As she spoke through the benefits behind each cosmetic in the line, I jumped on my phone and flicked through her Instagram account. Her snaps were so grown up, with some shots creeping towards sultry.

As I put my phone down and looked back up to the schoolgirl with a microphone in one hand and palmcards in the other, it brought me to the sudden realisation: teenagers today just ain’t what they used to be.

Lianna is the face of her Napoleon Perdis’ new range, Total Bae. Picture: Supplied.

Along with Lianna, Perdis’ 14-year-old triplets Athina, Alexia and Angelene are also part of the range, and every bit as mature as their older sister.

Plugging the range as “youthful” and aimed “to get the younger generation to be more fun and cool,” their makeup was flawless and their style looked straight out of a magazine — there wasn’t an ounce of ‘awkward teen’ between the sisters.

“We started wearing makeup about a year ago because we felt like we were ready to wear it,” Athena, one of the triplets told me.

“We started wearing a little bit of mascara and a little bit of gloss and then we went in to more concealer as well as eye shadow.

“It’s not a bad thing to start wearing makeup at a young age, because you just want to have that extra oomph in your look.”

Athena, Alexia, Lianna and Angeline. Picture: Supplied.

I wondered if any of the girls, as they sat across from me with their perfectly lined lips and unblemished skin, had memories of awkwardness and embarrassing haircuts, outfits or even make-up looks in their memory bank.

“My friends sometimes say ‘you’re not the average teen,’ and I’m like ‘I am though’ because I really am quite normal,” Lianna said.

“I think make-up is about adding to the features you already have and enhancing them, so I think that’s what really people should think about when girls start putting makeup on.

“I’m just here helping my parents company and supporting it, and maybe get into more things with the business when I’m a little bit older. But I want to stick with the family brand.”

What happened to the awkward age? Picture: Supplied

The loss of that ‘awkward age’ makes me surprisingly sad.

The surge of social media has allowed 16 and below to become sexy, and it’s a hard pill to swallow.

Ten years ago, when I was 16, my MySpace page (if only I could remember the password) was filled with hundreds of typical teen photos. Days at the beach, weekend sleepovers and birthday parties — no-one had any idea what a ‘sexy selfie’ was and if we did try and pull it off — it was for a stitch up, and not a serious attempt at being sultry.

We didn’t have a cult-like obsession with Jenner equivalents, and we sure as hell didn’t contour, cake, bake and bronze our bodies until we looked jumped from 15 to 25.

18-year-old Kylie Jenner. Picture: @kyliejenner Instagram

Now, my social following has skewed to a list that includes beauty bloggers, fitness fanatics and celebrities — because at 26, they’re all part of what now has my interest. But I still have those half-humorous memories of my ‘awkward age’.

They are the photos I look back on, laugh at and have the whole ‘what was I thinking’ moment every time they pop up on my parent’s computer screen.

Did the Jenner sisters ever go through an awkward age? Picture: Jason Merritt/Getty Images.

They are the cringe-worthy experiences that make me shudder and smile at the same time. It’s an awkwardness that I think, until the rise of social media, most of us have had the pleasure of appreciating to some extent.

But looking through my Instagram feed, those that should be going through the ‘gawky’ years have somehow long-jumped the whole experience.

The ‘what was I thinking’ era has come to an end, instead replaced with a digital album of edited selfies and flawless photos that reflect a world of ‘picture perfect’ puberty.

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