When I was a kid playing “Truth or Dare” with my friends, I rarely deviated from the safety of the first choice. You always knew what you were getting with Truth—and at ten, eleven, twelve years old, how high-risk could it really get? You’d be prodded to reveal your crush—or cop to the one the whole class already knew about. You’d be grilled about the most embarrassing thing you’d ever done (usually having to do with farting or falling over). Perhaps, once in a while, you’d be tasked to make a dramatic, path-setting decision, one that would define you forever in the eyes of your peers: Freddie Prinze, Jr., or Leo? (And why?)
The best part was that if for any reason you didn’t feel comfortable unveiling your real answer, you could always make something up. Maybe they’d believe you—maybe they wouldn’t—but in the end, kids will gloss over such matters to keep a time-constrained game rolling.
On the other hand, the whole concept of the Dare scared me. Having to do something surely and completely out of my comfort zone was daunting, because I was deathly afraid of making a fool of myself. I was never the spontaneous, devil-may-care chick who could take on a dare and emerge from the other end of the tunnel in one piece. I was more of the stand-on-the-sidelines-in-secondhand-shame kind, while my gutsier friends pulled off their wacky feats with nary a hint of discomfiture.
In short, I was never, ever the daring type.
That is, until I became a teenager. Then, one day, I discovered the mystical world of hair and makeup and the bubbling potential for personal expression therein, and in a split second, I felt the shift.
Today, I’m a rather different girl. I’m the one with the loud lip color and the topknot, the funky sunglasses and unusual accessories—and no longer am I afraid to goof off (even when I’m all spruced up). I'll still choose Truth when playing that childhood game—old habits die hard, I suppose—but if someone tells me I can work emerald eye liner or fuchsia lipstick, I’ll take the plunge. After all, the only way to keep your look fresh, even when you’ve got it down to an art, is to fool around with it from time to time. You’ll have fun doing it, too, I promise!
So here’s a challenge for the New Year: Treat your primp-and-preen process to a bold new update. Take a chance on one, two, or all five of these fierce beauty trends, which cover everything from lips to locks to lacquers. I dare you!
(In-article photo: Promo for The Carrie Diaries courtesy of The CW. Flashbox photo sources, L-R: Allure, Harper’s Bazaar, and Real Beauty, all via Stephanie Castillo on Pinterest)
