Ever since I was seven years old, I’ve had to wear prescription lenses to correct my nearsightedness. My first pair of eyeglasses was a big, chunky, clear plastic monstrosity. I blame that fashion mistake on watching reruns of Wonder Woman. Lynda Carter wore huge red frames that hid half her face when she was playing Wonder Woman’s alter-ego Diana Prince. I suppose that’s fine — if you’re a superheroine intent on hiding your true identity. If you’re a bookwormish kid with thick lenses, hiding your true identity isn’t your biggest problem. Your biggest problem is looking like a goldfish and getting called “Four-Eyes” by the playground bullies. Pair those goggles with dental braces and you’re asking for the complete and utter death of your social life. Welcome to Nerdyland, Fish.

Okay, so I was exaggerating about the death of my social life since in my school nobody had social lives anyway, and the smart kids could be popular, too. However, in my last year of high school, I was finally released from the tyranny of having my nose pinched by a pair of eyeglasses when my mom bought me my first pair of contact lenses. No longer would I feel like I was living behind a glass pane. Facing the world bare-faced, I felt pretty, oh so pretty, I felt pretty and witty and… you know the rest of the lyrics. Heh.

I’ve worn contact lenses since then, but still have a pair of wire-rimmed eyeglasses at hand. Based on what people tell me, I look better without eyeglasses but I look better with eyeglasses. No, you haven’t gotten cross-eyed and I didn’t make a typing error: people have truly presented such contradictory evidence, which I think depends on whether or not my current pair of eyeglasses flatters my eye shape.

Wearing eyeglasses or contact lenses had become so routine that I hadn’t paused to think how these have changed my appearance, for worse or for better. That was before my mom bought me a pair of green contact lenses last Saturday for my birthday. My eyes are naturally a dark brown, but the colored lenses were on promo and I was itching to do something new with my appearance. Green is a subtle color change from brown, but I did notice that the new color makes my beady little eyes look bigger and softer. This changes the character of my face; I think it makes me look friendlier and more approachable.

It’s definitely a far cry from thick plastic frames.

Tags: Contact Lenses, Eyeglasses, New Look