Hello, it’s Melanie. I decided to challenge my friend and I to a baddie transformation last week. After seeing countless recommended videos on Youtube, most of which were titled something along the lines of, “Spending $1000 to be an Instagram Baddie” or “Spending $1000 to Glow Up,” I was convinced that it would be an interesting and fun experience to participate in. Whereas these girls dropped a substantial amount of money on acrylic nails, hair salon appointments, lash extensions, makeup, and clothing, my friend and I are broke college students who are far far away from the realm of successful youtubers. Due to our financial situation and my general love for thrift shopping, I thought this experience would pose more of a challenge if we were to thrift each other’s outfits. Makeup was also in the hands of my friend and vise versa. To add to the full baddie experience, we also agreed that we would take each other’s pictures, edit them, and caption them for all of Instagram to see and enjoy/cringe at. We even went to Dollar tree and Target this Tuesday (which was when the transformation took place because hello?! Transformation Tuesday is a thing, much to my chagrin) to get fake nails and polish them ourselves. For your information, the other person picked the nail color as well. Yup, every detail was considered. Even the color of my friend’s hijab.
Not only am I far far away from the realm of successful youtubers, but I would also consider myself very distant from the bubble of instagram baddies. I hardly do glam makeup and have never gotten acrylic nails; nonetheless, I have probably gotten my nails professionally done around five times. I have only dyed my hair once, my sad lashes have never seen the volume of lash extensions, and I’d rather wear a plastic bag than don tight and revealing clothes in public. (I have been blessed with a hairy stick figure that wishes she was not a hairy stick figure and instead, a hairless curvy figure. My severe scoliosis makes my ribs unapologetically stick out and the curves along my sides are blatantly uneven. Not to mention my dramatically uneven boobs and huge scoliosis surgery scar running down 80% of my back. Thanks genes!) Besides appearance, I wouldn’t label myself much of an assertive and bold person, much like how one would characterize a baddie. Ants scare me, roller coasters make me believe hell is real, and cussing is nearly out of my vocabulary. I joined Instagram late last year so I’m not the biggest fan of social media and the concept of publicly sharing photos of myself seems odd to me. And it’s not like I try to be a good girl, or whatever that means. I’m just who I am and I don’t think baddie is that. I’m like an anti-baddie. Is that a goodie? But goodie doesn’t seem to sit right with me either. A goaddie? I’m calling it. A goaddie. A goaddie, according to Melanie’s own made up Urban Dictionary definition, is defined as, “a girl who is dynamically both good and bad, as we all truly are.”
Now that you have a general picture of who I really am, ahem a goaddie, let’s talk about the actual experience. IT WAS SO MUCH FUN! 10/10 WOULD RECOMMEND! Thrifting for a modest baddie outfit, as my friend is Muslim, proved to be a lot easier than I was expecting. Despite us both having to try on a plethora of clothes in the dressing room, which took around an hour and a half, the clothing options were endless. My imagination was able to butt naked and free. Our initial goal was to thrift one outfit with a budget of $20. Once we filled up our Salvation Army cart to its brim and I thought about all the possibilities, *actual representation of me below* 
I decided to expand it to three outfits. Long story not-so-short, I purchased three outfits for around $40 and she picked out two for around $13. She went to Savers another day for the last outfit.
Fast forward a few days of washing our clothes and very unscientific “baddie” research. We arrive at Transformation Tuesday. We glue our fake nails on and polish them. We feel powerful. We start tapping our phone screens. We also get frustrated at our inability to do basic things such as type and button our jeans. But those things, we gradually learned, are minutiae hassles compared to the world of added sass and fierceness with which acrylic nails grant. We put on the chosen outfits and do each other’s makeup. She chose graphic yellow eyeliner and purple glossy lips for me. I went for a pink glossy eyelid and rosy lips for her.
By this time, golden hour was starting aka optimal photography lighting. We did the obvious ones: squat poses, hair flipping, and smizes, but I also took “laying on the grass” pictures, “sitting in a rose garden while trying to act cool and collected,” and “candid dandelion blowing ones.” What can I say? I’m a very niche photographer, or in other words, I just take a million hoping that one turns out decent. If there’s one thing I learned from this entire photography session, it is that photogenic squatting is a lot harder than it looks. I would say about 90% of our squatting photos looked like we’re constipated or have back problems, which I guess in my case is partly true. It was difficult, but we managed to narrow the multitude of photos down to three and edited them on vsco. We sent our edited photos, thoughtful captions, and left our dignity with each other. We reluctantly posted them on Instagram and her’s instantly blew up. I didn’t even want to look at or think of mine out of embarrassment. I had the underlying intention of breaking her Instagram likes record, but I also wasn’t that focused on numbers since the overall premise was for us to get out of our comfort zone. Her likes and comments flooded with compliments on the outfit and her overall beauty. I received comments of appreciation as well but I could care less when compared to how I felt about hers. I kept checking her post in excitement and pride. My post equated deep embarrassment and, admittedly, an ounce of guilt for taking up “virtual space,” while hers emanated exuberant confidence. People overwhelmed her with appreciation and I was lucky enough to be given a major role in the process. As you might imagine, the post has in fact become her most liked. And I know that likes and comments on social media shouldn’t hold much significance in how one feels about themselves, but it was nice to reap the fruits of my efforts. More importantly, it was such a great feeling to be reminded that everyone has the power to create awe and delight in others through means such as makeup and fashion. Where do I apply to become Instagram baddie transformer? Tell your mom, dad, and dog. I’ve mastered how to be good at making others bad. Don’t be surprised when your dog looks better in a grommet collar than you’ll ever look in a grommet belt.
Melanie T / MelT
melt fashion 