My Two Cents on: Having The Awkward Girl Syndrome

Hi, my name is Chereen, and I suffer from the awkward girl syndrome (AGS).

What is AGS? The awkward girl syndrome plagues women all over the world. It’s an epidemic that only certain woman will understand, and traces back to their teenage years – such as yours truly.

I was undoubtedly an awkward teenager. I suffered from an extensive case of teenage acne, I had frizzy hair of which I had no control over (or knowledge of useful products), I was chubby, wore braces, and I had not yet grown into my facial features. Let’s not forget to credit my Middle Eastern genes for the excess of overgrown eyebrows and that I had yet to learn the art of threading. Long story short – this girl was not the hottest chica in town, let me tell you.

I was praised for my extroverted personality (which also confirmed my lack of physical attractiveness) and was every boy’s friend. I was rarely the girlfriend (don’t get me wrong, I had a few fans here and there). I was usually the platonic friend that helped the boys get the girls. I crushed on the class hottie? He crushed on my best friend. Was I upset? Meh, it was high school, I was more concerned with why my chest and ass were growing at double the rate of my white friends (thanks again Arab genes).

Because I was the friend more than I was the girlfriend, I grew up treating my guy friends like brothers. I was so comfortable being myself as a friend that I never had to worry about boundaries. THEN. Thankfully, I eventually grew into my body and learned the art of the sexy. But while my fly may be fierce now, I still treat boys like I did when I was 13.

Now while not every teenager gracefully floats through puberty, there are those girls that really just blossom into hotties right away – and those girls learn the tricks of the trade from an early age. Many of my friends who did not suffer from AGS, can deal with men effortlessly now. They know when to flirt (which my friends and exes, and now husband will confirm I totally suck at), they know when to seal the deal, and when to back off and send the right messages.

As for me? I’m retarded. I treated every guy like he’s special…and for those that may have had feelings for me? I ended up hurting them worse than if I had just initially showed that I wasn’t interested. I ended up giving them false hope. Essentially, the awkward girl in me still thought every guy was a friend with platonic intentions. And I still do – but  I got married so I finally don’t have to deal with this anymore, everyone has to be platonic now right? …Right? Wrong.

So what to do? Well, essentially girls that suffer from AGS have to learn to set boundaries. Since it’s happening at a later stage in life, you may find it difficult and uncomfortable at first, but eventually, you’ll find that less guys hate you for leading them on and you won’t need to deal with rocks thrown at your window at 3 am. (Ahmed, seriously, I’m just not interested. Want to go to dinner to talk about it?).

…Shit.