Road Trip Wednesday is a blog carnival, where YA Highway’s contributors and readers post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on our own blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody’s take on the topic.
This week, Road Trip Wednesday the prompt was: Growing up, who did you want to be like? So, in the spirit of Like Mandarin, I would have given anything to be like...
I’m pretty sure there were 20 different people I wanted to be like, depending on the weather, what I wore that day, and how much I hated my hair. I decided to go the child star route for this RTW because it lets me show you pretty pictures. When I was young, these* were the biggies:
Tracey the Kid
You know how little girls want to grow up and be a princess? Well, I knew life as a princess wasn’t all fun and games—hello, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. I had greater ambition: to be like Punky Brewster. (Hey, Kirsten, I just named your Book #2.)
I aspired to her purposefully disheveled look, especially since my mother would never let me wear mismatched shirts under a red vest, baggy jeans with one leg rolled up, and rainbow socks. Also, she had a deep, scratchy voice, which meant she was instantly cooler than me.
Tracey the Tween
Oh look, more actresses from ’80s TV shows. Two actually since tween me had a bunch of fangirl crushes. The first was the ever-annoying Carol Seaver on Growing Pains. In my defense, I didn’t want to grow up to be a nerd (look where that got me) I just liked the fact that she was played by Tracey Gold. TRACEY! GOLD!! Not only did she have the same first name as me, but it was spelled the right way. (Sorry Tracy, Traci, and Tracie but your names are misspelled.) And her last name started with G, just like my last name! (Neithercott’s just a little something I picked up along the way. I was born Tracey Giordano.)
So, naturally I wanted to be her. When you’re the only Tracey within a 50-mile radius, finding a fellow Tracey is A BIG DEAL. Plus, tween me knew that she and Kirk Cameron were only pretending to be brother and sister, so there was still a good chance me and Mike Seaver could get married without it being all icky.
But I also wanted to be Stephanie Tanner from Full House. I didn’t even care that she had a lisp. She was about five gazillion times less annoying than Michelle (I know, I know—how rude of me) and always said clever things, like “Well pin a rose on my nose.” The downside: Kimmy Gibbler was always over being her stupid self. But I could handle that.
Tracey the Teen
Early in my teen years, I like any self-respecting young girl, wanted to be like Kelly Kapowski from Saved By the Bell. I’m not sure I need to explain why: Awesome hair, radical clothes, and Zach Morris. Tell me you wouldn’t want to look like this:
I thought so. But as I matured I realized there was more to life than having a hunky blonde boy with a cell phone (yes, A CELL PHONE!) and a hunky brown-haired boy with chiseled abs and stunning features.**
That’s when I wanted to be like Veronica Mars. While the rest of my classmates were fanning themselves over Joey Potter from Dawson’s Creek (totally overlooking her constant I’m-looking-into-the-sun-and-it’s-hurting-my-eyes face) I wanted to be as smart and funny and witty as Veronica. Also, I really wanted to solve crimes
Actually, I still want to be like Veronica.
Who did you want to be like when you were younger?
*While searching for these images I realized that ever single actress came of age by whipping it all off for Maxim or going on a drug and alcohol binge. That's another reason I'm really glad I didn't end up like any of them.
**I also currently aspire to be Derek Zoolander for obvious reasons.
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