Like Mother, Like Daughter

All my life, people have told me how much I look like my mom. When I was a child, my mother sometimes dressed us alike. I was her Mini Me. As a grew up, we shared mannerisms, and even our voices sounded similar. People sometimes got us mixed up on the phone. None of that is bad. My mom is a smart, fit and beautiful woman with great style. In fact, I learned a lot about fashion from her.

Sometimes though, genes played a bigger part. there was nothing to learn. It’s just who we were. In some ways, of course, we’re very different. We don’t always have the same taste in things like clothes, music or film.

But as I was going through photos for this entry, I was taken aback by our similarities once again. Here’s a photo of my mother at age 14:

When I was 14, I’d never seen that picture. But I did, like her, dye my hair blonde as a teenager. Here’s me at 14:

Twenty years separated us, and fashions in ’66 were very different from those in ’86, but the similarities are uncanny. This is why people have mistaken us for sisters since I was about 12. Other than my 1980s bangs, we look alike. Not only that, we both have a penchant for posing and thought a serious look was the most becoming way to have our photos taken.

You’ll be happy to know we’re both smiling now—in photos and in real life. A smile, it turns out, is a fabulous accessory.

Happy Mother’s Day, Mom!