25 Reasons You Grew Up Dancing and It Made You a Beauty Girl

Lifetime

I've always known I was a beauty girl, and it all started with dance.

I began taking dance classes at two and a half years old. My mother made me a deal: stop wearing diapers and I could enroll in my first ballet class. I was instantly forever potty trained.

From then on (until last year — and I am 30 now), it's been an endless stream of annual recitals and musicals. At an early age, I had to learn how to use hot rollers, keep lash glue out of my eyes, and make my cheekbones pop under bright lights. I created everything from a white face for Pippin, to a smudge-free red lip for West Side Story, and a tight topknot for a Sugarplum Fairy performance.

If you've ever danced, you know what I am talking about! Keep reading to see if you, too, turned into a beauty junkie thanks to all of those jazz, tap, and ballet lessons.

abbyleeme.tumblr.com

1. You figured how to put on fake lashes when you were, like, 12.

2. Forget bronzer — it was all about the pink blush to make those stage cheeks pop.

3. Before you graduated from training bras to padded ones, you learned how to contour your cleavage in your leotard for that Fosse number.

4. You’ll never need to make a Drybar appointment, since you perfected how to DIY big curls.

5. You’ve ingested so much hairspray that it’s actually become a comfort smell.

Lifetime

6. Creative buns, braids, and ponytails were on your radar before Pinterest was even a thing.

7. You were doing the Snooki poof decades prior to the Jersey Shore.

8. To this day, you still find bobby pins at the bottom of every bag, between couch pillows . . .

9. Wipes, baby oil — heck, you’d you use cooking grease if it got the face paint off post-show.

10. You owned a sparkly caboodle with stickers on it to house all of your backstage loot.

Lifetime

11. Halloween was just practice for your recital look.

12. And your parents still have those cheesy recital costume photos framed.

13. The Instagram slang #OnPoint(e) has a totally different meaning to you.

14. You have a dance mom.

15. Thanks to quick changes in the wings, you are a master at stripping down at sample sales.

tumblr.com

16. Sparkly tan tights took the place of self-tanner in the ‘90s.

17. You dressed as the Black Swan for Halloween way before Natalie Portman made it cool.

18. Foot cream is still a staple on your bedroom nightstand. And you still may have calluses from toe shoes.

19. Baby powder was a necessity to get rid of thigh chaffing and jazz shoe stink.

20. One word: glitter. Lots and lots of glitter makeup.

child-actor-gifs.tumblr.com

21. You wore red lipstick before any of your friends — and knew how to keep it from smudging.

22. And you understood that you had to shave/wax/laser down there from an early age, because puberty + light pink leotards under spotlights don’t work.

23. Your mom always carried clear nail polish to fix your tights rips.

24. Jody Sawyer’s hair and makeup in the Center Stage finale number inspired your prom/graduation/wedding beauty look.

25. You know from first-hand experience that there is no greater high than standing on that stage performing for your friends and family.