An Earring Love Affair
Who remembers that one scene in The Parent Trap (Lindsay Lohan version) when Hallie pierces Annie’s ears using an apple, a needle, and an ice cube? I watched that movie at least once a year between the ages of eight and twelve, and needless to say, I loved that scene. There’s something about Hallie’s confidence as she lowers that needle, something about that whole makeover scene where the prim and proper Annie gets transformed into California cool girl Hallie. When I was younger, earrings were the ultimate sign of maturity. Anyone could get a best friends necklace or a Sillybandz bracelet, but not anyone could throw on a pair of earrings.
When I was in middle school, I got my ears pierced at Claire’s – a mistake. Although everyone was doing it at the time, my sensitive ears could not take it. I was so disappointed that, instead of sporting the trendy neon studs or zipper earrings, I was wearing Irritated and Inflamed Ears courtesy of Emily Wang F/W 2010. I eventually built a prolific collection of clip-on earrings, but I still envied the girls with real piercings, still stared at the earring displays in the jewelry section. Earrings meant maturity. It meant that you were thirteen, not twelve, that you went to the mall with friends instead of with parents. Sure, I had earrings, but they weren’t the real deal.
When I got my ears pierced for the second time, I went to the doctor’s office. I was painstakingly careful – no infected ears this time. I remember admiring myself in every store window I passed, turning my head this way and that to see the little gold studs flash in the light. Those studs got tiring fast, though, and the six week post-piercing wait time felt like an eternity. I was itching to get the latest styles from Forever 21, dying to take out the boring gold studs, to walk in homeroom with fancy dangling earrings. I garnered a sizeable collection quickly, buying whatever tickled my fancy. I switched up my earrings daily to go with whatever outfit I was wearing. Some friends wore the same earrings for years, but I couldn’t go a week without trying a new pair.
As my style changed, so did my taste in earrings. In seventh grade, when I went to the mall nearly every week, I bought everything from jeweled flowers to oversized hoops. One of my favorite pairs were lizard earrings I got in Austria during an orchestra tour (of all things to get in Austria, who gets lizard earrings?). They were weird, and I loved them. My style during that time was eclectic and edgy; my favorite shirt was a Tim Burton-inspired graphic tee. Thankfully, times have changed and I’m no longer the edgy scene kid I was before. Now, I prefer elegant and understated earrings with a unique twist, and I’ve cut down my collection considerably. I only brought fourteen pairs to college, enough to fit in two weekly pill dispensers that serve as a makeshift earring holder. It’s my capsule collection, ones that I can wear over and over with any outfit. I still change my earrings almost every day, and I still admire the way they look in the walls in an elevator or a bathroom mirror. Whereas some people can’t leave the house without mascara, I feel like I can’t leave the house without earrings.
A few months ago I lost one of my favorite earrings (etched silver hoops). I went to go look for the missing one with a friend, but sadly, we came up empty-handed. She asked me if earrings actually made a difference in an outfit, and I couldn’t be happier to answer. “Look,” I remember saying, with the remaining hoop earring in one ear and nothing in the other. “It makes a difference, right?” I covered half of my face with a hand, then the other half. She agreed, and I held up the earring to her unpierced ear, showing her the difference, albeit subtle, an earring can make. And guess what? She ended up getting her ears pierced a few weeks later.