A good friend of mine had some out of town family visiting last weekend. One of her guests was a 12 year old tween-ager. She related this story to me: This 12 year old appeared with her dad at the door covered from forehead to chin in heavy make-up. Her eye makeup was 'smokey" gone bad. Too much blush, too much lipstick, too much eyeshadow, too much of everything. Her outfit was "tween sheek."She had on mini shorts that showed butt crack and barely covered her tush. Her top was skin tight topped off with a ton of cleavage. Clearly a girl "a wishin and a hopin" she was older.
Ok got the visual? So you might have expected that this tween would have had a teen attitude as an accessory to her look, but here was the surprise. My friend, hoping to have some time to talk to her dad, asked if she wanted to watch a movie. She reminded this girl of a previous visit, when she was 9, when she spent her entire visit, coloring, and doing art projects. The girl, shyly asks my friend if she had any of those art materials around, that she could use. For the next three hours, this girl colored in coloring books, drew with markers, and glued feathers and sparkles to her hearts content. Now we had a girl yearning to be young.
When my friend told me this story it was a good reminder of these tween age kids. They really are stuck in the middle, trying to imitate the "big kids" but in their hearts, still the little ones.