The Cultured Girl

As children, our yearly evolution was neatly chronicled by the obligatory school photo, which captured us at the same time every year, dolled up in our best outfit. But as adults, our photo ops are far more scattershot. That’s why I love this idea for a birthday ritual, which my friend Stacie dreamt up after graduating from college and has done every year since.

Every year, she puts on what she considers the “quintessential outfit of the moment” and has a friend take her photo in front of the building in which she’s living at the time. She keeps all of the photos in one album, complete with notes on where she’s working at the time and anything monumental that happened that year (e.g., getting married.) Here are some of her insights:

“My guideline is that I cannot re-take the picture no matter how much I hate it, and I have to have to ‘keep it real.’ I want to capture what I really look like, so no getting a fancy hairdo the day before. Now that I’m about 10 years into this project, I’ve noticed that I’m more consistent than I would have ever imagined. It’s actually kind of surprising. I’ve only moved once, and while I question a few of my fashion choices, I look pretty much the same as ever. Who would have thunk it?”

I wish I’d thought of this when I graduated from college too, but I suppose it’s not too late to start!