What Your Favorite Middle School T-shirt Says About You

Objectively speaking, middle school is a rough time.  It was a time filled with awkward braces and inexplicable hair growth. A time marked by our collective, misguided belief in the staying power of platform flip-flops and blue eye-shadow. A time when rhinestones’ glittery embrace held every girl a bit too close. A time when that kid Joey Presini told you that your nose looked like a squirrel’s.

Middle school was tough, but we always had our favorite t-shirt to pull us through. Our t-shirts were an extension of our personalities. They said something about ourselves,”Here is my shirt and if you don’t like it that is too bad because I spent all of my money on it and age requirements outlined by US department of Labor dictate that I cannot work at the Baskin-Robbins for another two-and-a-half-years. So, take me as I am!”

We loved our t-shirts, but did our t-shirts love us back?

Herewith, what your favorite t-shirt really said about you:

A t-shirt with a rhinestone heart and/or star 

Lizzie McGuire affected you in a big BIG way.

Any Hollister t-shirt ever made

You had never really been surfing before, but, uh, you wanted people to know you were not adverse to the idea.

Camouflage print shirt with cool decal 

You wanted to convey your style as both tough and girly. Also, in case of forest-based combat, you wanted to always be prepared.

The light-blue Paul Frank shirt

Your favorite Disney Channel Original Movie (DCOM for the kids in the know) was probably Brink. You loved spending time outside. All you really needed to be happy was a pair of your favorite heelies and the open road.

The Paul Frank shirt with the monkey as a pirate

There wasn’t a whole lot of thought put into this purchase. You just thought the idea of a monkey-pirate was hysterical. Because it is.

An Abercrombie Polo

You were wheelin’ and dealin’ since elementary school days. The hallways were Wall Street and the cafeteria was your stock exchange. You could get one pizza Lunchable for only two Uncrustables and still end up a Go Gurt on top. You even predicted the Baby Bottle Pop Crash of ’02, but you were modest about it. A lot of good kids lost their Sour Punch straws in the process.

David and Goliath’s “Boys are stupid, throw rocks at them.” 

Maybe you were a budding feminist or maybe you were just harboring some pent up aggression towards Joey Presini for saying that your nose looked like a squirrel’s.

Editor’s Note: It is never okay to throw anything at anyone, no matter how many times they compare your facial features to small mammal’s. 

David and Goliath’s You Rock, You Rule shirt

You had just begun to develop a bit of a smarty-pants sense of humor and you wanted the world to know it. Tiffany Izek may have been the class clown, but you were gonna close that gap.

Tie-dyed Scrunchy shirt

I really don’t know. This shirt still stands as the second biggest fashion enigma of the early 2000s. The first being the necktie belt.

Featured image via TheLaurenProject