He Numbered the Pores on My Face

By Scarlet Hiltibidal

When Scarlet Hiltibidal was a teenager, plastic butterfly clips were all the rage. She couldn’t understand why they didn’t look the same in her “frizzy, bulbous hair” as they did on the blonde whose mom was a professional hair stylist. Back then, she would have sanctioned the destruction of scores of actual butterflies just to own the label "pretty butterfly clips girl." And so it goes for many girls like Scarlet who strive for self-worth yet struggle to find it.