Modeling

Ever since she was fairly young, people have told Equestrian Girl she should be a model.  It was easy to poo-poo the idea when she was little.  She was painfully shy and HATED getting her picture taken (the hate was akin to me getting mine taken while wearing a bathing suit).  Over the years she's lost that shyness though she's still on the quiet side and has no trouble with being photographed.  I really believe that showing horses has helped with both - she's had to put herself out there in front of a judge while showing off her horse and her own riding abilities and sometimes even TALK to the judge.

As Equestrian Girl quickly closes in on her first year of being in teen, she's failing to go through that horribly awkward year or two that most of us girls find ourselves in with pimples on our face, hair that is always greasy and stringy (or too curly and frizzy), and braces on our teeth.  She's one of the lucky ones.  She's also finding that everyone thinks she is much older than she is...including teen boys.

Walking down the sidewalk at an outdoor mall the other day more than just a few young men were oogling her.  I wanted to hang a sign around my neck with an arrow pointing at my daughter saying, "SHE IS ONLY 12!!!"  While I am pushing my son out the door to be more independent and learn to be "street smart" I'm afraid to let our more mature daughter do the same...unless I could dress her in baggy sweats of the homeless woman variety.  Unfortunately, along with her beauty comes a great sense of fashion.  She LIKES to dress pretty.