It started with rainbows.
I needed a new hat. I’ve been live-streaming on YouTube for three years wearing a rainbow-colored propeller hat, but I needed one that didn’t have my employer’s name on it, so I went to Amazon and looked at rainbow propeller beanies. I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted to buy, of course, so I just left the page, figuring I’d come back to it later.
But of course, this is the modern internet age. So that hat wouldn’t just leave me alone. Oh no. It followed me everywhere I went – and not just the hat, but every other rainbow item that Amazon offered. I saw rainbow tutus. Rainbow leggings. Rainbow body stockings. Rainbow wigs. Rainbow undergarments. Rainbow fishnets. Everywhere I turned, rainbow clothing items followed me across the internet, beckoning me to come back and buy into the rainbow hype.
And buy in I did.
Sure, I bought the hat. But that’s not all I bought. I bought arm-warmers. I bought knee socks. I bought the tutu. I bought a bow-tie. I bought them all, because after being followed around on the internet by rainbows for weeks, it was all I could do.
Once I had these things, I realiezd I didn’t actually have an outfit: After all, you can’t wear just knee socks and a tutu. Not on YouTube anyway; maybe you can get away with that on other streaming services, but I had a need for something to cover other parts of me. I had a close-fitting black t-shirt that would work, but I needed something for my legs that would let me show off my rainbows – so I bought a pair of black yoga pants to go along with everything.
This was the first step towards being pretty, and I wanted to do myself up right. For me, this was playing dress-up – but I was enjoying being playful in a new way, where I could embrace a very different look than the “handsome” look. At this point I wasn’t really going for pretty – just going for “silly” with a dash of feminine, largely brought on by the tutu – and I was pleased with the result.
