We all remember our teenage years. It’s often one of the most awkward and bizarre periods of life as we undergo all kinds of physical and mental changes, develop into adults, and start to become the people we want to be in the future. It’s also a time when we like to express ourselves, experiment with different looks, and find our own unique sense of style.

A lot of teens try out different haircuts and outfits in order to keep up with fashion trends or set themselves apart from the crowd. Sometimes, those looks work out just fine. Other times, they really don’t. 30 people shared photos of their teenage years, letting us all cringe together at some of the terrible choices they made in the name of ‘style’.

1) One For The Twilight Fans

Nope, this photo wasn’t taken on Halloween or outside some kind of comic convention. This guy actually used to dress up like a classy vampire, complete with a whole lot of eye makeup and super skinny pants, because he thought it was cool.

2) A Terrible Idea

Kids do a lot of dumb stuff to show off in front of their friends and stand out from the crowd, but this one really takes the cake! This guy’s buddies were all dressing up like frat guys as part of an event called Frat Boy Friday, so he decided to be totally different and go for an old man look, shaving his actual hair in the process and having to wait a long time for it to fully grow back.

3) Fairy Tale Fun

This girl begged her mom and dad to let her take this simply stunning picture at a Medieval Times in Florida, complete with princess gown, fairy tale castle, a magical unicorn, and even a rainbow just for the hell of it. Most of her hair has been photoshopped in the image and the result is one of the most over-the-top childhood photos of all time.

4) Scene Queen

Back in the early 2000s, it wasn’t uncommon to see lots of girls with this kind of look. Like so many teens throughout the decades, ‘scene’ kids like this girl tended to look, feel, and act like they were the coolest kids in town, not realizing how ridiculous their outfits appeared to most people around them. Plus, it must have taken so long to dress up like that every single day. Exhausting!

5) Kid Or Parent?

One thing most teenagers have in common is a desire to be treated like adults, but this girl actually looked like one! This photo was taken when she was just 13, but her haircut, glasses, and fashion sense made her seem like she was from a whole other era. At least she already knows more or less how she’s going to look a few decades down the line.

6) Too Cool For School

Wow, there’s a lot to unpack here! The hair, the pose, the expression, the suit, the sideburns, that weird silhouette picture on the wall, and what is with that mop in a dress he’s holding? Well, the story behind this photo is that the guy was going to a graduation prom and decided to take a mop along as his date for the evening. Luckily, the guy has gotten rid of his ‘fro nowadays.

7) Boy Or Girl?

If you aren’t quite sure on the gender of this individual, allow us to enlighten you: this is a girl. She’s wearing a simply gorgeous T-shirt she made herself and is, for some unknown reason, surrounded by balloons and sitting on a ladder. If you look up ‘awkward’ in the dictionary, this image should appear.

8) What Happened?

Hairstyles sure have changed a lot over the years, but we don’t think this look was ever popular! Taken back in 1996, this photo was actually used a high school yearbook entry. Everything about this guy is a contradiction. His shirt and most of his hair are quite normal and casual, but the weird blue bangs, thick chain around his neck, and bizarre emoji stuck to his chest scream of that classic teenage desire to be different and stand out from the crowd.

9) You Look So Cool

This hard rocking youngster decided to try and style his hair to look just like Ryan Martinie, bass player with Illinois heavy metal group Mudvayne. During a period of the band’s history, Martinie had his hair styled into devil-like horns. He had a professional team looking after his hair. This kid, on the other hand, did not have any professional experience whatsoever, and it shows!

10) Ouch

There are bad haircuts, and then there’s this. Literally every kid in the world has a bad haircut at some time or another, but this 13-year-old girl really got unlucky with those greasy-looking bangs in a strange little halo shape on her forehead. What were her parents thinking?!

11) Hammer Time

Nope, this kid isn’t applying to be part of the Blue Man Group, nor is he cosplaying as some kind of Star Wars alien. He just thought it would be a good idea to smash a can of spray paint with a hammer and see what happened. We can all learn from his terrible but amusing antics.

12) A Collage Of Awkwardness

We’ve got not one but three amazingly awkward photos here. This girl decided to run her own fashion shoot in the family living room. After posing strangely beside a table and then lying down in front of the fireplace, it seemed like she was running out of ideas. So she decided to grab a couple of hideous leopard print lamps for the last snap because why not?

13) A Fashion Disaster

When future generations look back on the teens of the early 2000s, this is what they’ll see. This kid looks like he walked through a wind turbine, but he probably thought he was the coolest guy in school with this crazy hairstyle.

14) So Hardcore

Kids will go to crazy lengths in their quests to be different and express their personality, as proven by this 12-year-old girl. She thought it was totally fine to draw spiderwebs all over her face every day. Her dark, gothic makeup doesn’t really match too well with that bright pink sweater though.

15) The Emo Lifestyle

This girl was doing her best to look edgy and emo by… posing on a child’s toy car? It’s not really the best look for someone who wants to seem broody and dark, but she did her best, and that’s all that matters. Let’s just hope she didn’t fall off or break the car moments after the photo was taken.

16) There’s A Spider On Your Head

Ouch! We’ve seen some major hair disasters throughout this list, but this has to be one of the worst. It looks almost like a spider, or maybe a bunch of tiny ponytails taken from Barbie dolls. Still, at least he had the courage to go outside and face life with such a mess on top of his head.

17) One Hot Summer

The summer of 2002 sure must have been a hot one with this kid’s flames. His fiery outfit is positively scorching with awkwardness, and the strange pose just makes the photo even better. Either way, it looks like a memorable moment he shared with some good friends; it’s just a shame none of them told him his outfit was a little ridiculous.

18) A True Brony

The kid in this photo, taken in 2012, admits that it wasn’t exactly his best ever look. There’s no shame in guys liking ponies and flowers, but this style definitely isn’t going to catch on.

19) Nature Lover

When she was younger, this girl apparently wanted to be a raccoon. She wanted it so bad that she walked around with this truly unique face paint style. It’s quite cute and always nice to see a kid engaging with nature, but let’s hope she didn’t go to school looking like that.

20) A Permanent Bad Hair Day

The boy in the photo shared this image on Reddit and admitted it “physically pained” him to upload such an embarrassing photo for the world to see. This is what happens when kids try to cut their own hair. Fortunately, the kid quickly learned his lesson and vowed to never make the same mistake again!

21) He’s Got It All

This kid is the embodiment of early 2000s style. Baggy jeans, chunky skate shoes, red spiky hair, and big headphones too. He’s got it all and even has a pose that says “I’m the coolest kid around!” At the time, many other kids probably did think he was pretty cool, but that look definitely wouldn’t work nowadays. Oh and where are his eyebrows?

22) Anything For Love

Why did this girl think it would be a smart idea to pose with a kitchen knife between her teeth? Like so many dumb things done by teenagers, it was all for love! She was trying to impress a boy with her antics. Surprise, surprise, it didn’t work! But she did start dating a different guy a short while after the photo was taken and didn’t need to pose with any dangerous weapons to win him over.

23) Must. Not. Smile.

The golden rule for any emo kid taking a photo of any kind was to never smile. It was an integral part of life for every My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy fan, and it resulted in some truly hilarious photos. This kid’s dad is grinning widely, happy to share a hug with his son, who is pulling the most miserable face imaginable to keep up his broody emo image.

24) All The Colors

Fashion has come a long way in recent years. Not so long ago, confusingly colorful and simply ugly outfits were pretty common, resulting in some terribly dressed kids posing for photos that would make them cringe many years later. Just like this one!

25) Going Swimming?

This picture would be embarrassing enough without the goggles. The kid’s ‘cool face’ and raised fingers already make it pretty bad, but the goggles add a whole new element of awkwardness and confusion. How did he possibly think this was a good look?

26) Oh Dear

Once again, we see a prime example of a kid trying to cut their own hair and failing spectacularly. It looks like his hand slipped while holding the razor! This is the sort of mistake you just can’t fix.

27) A Fashion Family

The whole family joined in on the fun for this photo. For some unknown reason, they thought it would be a good idea to all get the same hideous haircut. The unfortunate kid on the left shared the image with us all. It was taken in 1988!

28) Talk About A Change

This is what a ‘glow up’ looks like. This young man made some terrible hairstyle choices back in his ‘nu-metal’ phase as a teen, but he’s looking a lot better nowadays with a much more fashionable haircut.

29) Pouting Before It Was Cool

This girl was ahead of the times in a big way. Nowadays, we see countless people and even celebrities pouting or pulling off the ‘duck face’ in their photos, but she was doing it way back in the 1980s, as we can tell by the awful outfit and classic 80s hair.

30) A Little Too Much

At the age of 13, this boy (yes, that’s a boy) went to a party where everyone dressed up as the opposite gender. He took the idea a little too far, but definitely deserves credit for making such a big effort and this is one photo he can laugh about with his grandkids in the future.

These terribly dressed teens all learned some big lessons from their unfashionable phases, and we can all relate to them. Almost everyone on Earth has had an awful haircut or worn a dumb outfit at least once in life. It’s just a part of growing up and it always gives us funny photos and stories to look back on in the future. What was your biggest fashion faux pas?