Brunette

Le Chateau coat (c/o) (similar)
Brunette the Label sweatshirt
Paige jeans (c/o Shopbop)
Christian Louboutin heels
Massimo Dutti bag (similar)
Le Specs sunglasses
Keltie Leanne Designs ring (c/o)
CC Lifestyles earrings (c/o) (similar)
Location: Dalina – Vancouver, BC

I think I was in first-year university when I bought my Betty sweatshirt. My favourite local boutique brought in a collection of Archie comics-themed t-shirts and sweatshirts. The tagline was, “Are you a Betty or a Veronica?” There is no doubt: I am, and always have been, a Veronica. I know what I want, and I don’t care whose toes I have to step on to go after it. But at nineteen, I didn’t yet have the courage to admit it. After wavering in the changeroom for far too long, I left with the Betty sweatshirt. I chose, as so many women so often do, to sublimate my own truth in favour of being palatable to the people around me, who thought of me as “nice” and would question my identifying myself as anything else.

I still cringe, when I think of my Betty sweatshirt. And while I can forgive myself for taking the path of least resistance, I hate that I felt I had to choose between myself and the world.

Fast forward more than a decade. A lot has changed and yet, at once, very little has; it’s still often me against the world. The difference is that now, I always choose myself. I have grown into what many people would call a dreary crusader, constantly on a quest to fix things that most people don’t realise or care are deeply broken. I was always that person, of course. The difference is that now, I own it. So when I discovered the Brunette, Blonde and Redhead sweatshirts from Vancouver-based brand Brunette the Label, I knew I had to have one. It was time, finally, to replace my old Betty sweatshirt with the one I always wanted to wear.

As I type this, I am drinking tea from a Brunette mug that matches my sweatshirt. I’ve received nothing but compliments on both since I bought them. And it’s made me wonder, briefly, if I should have dared to choose that Veronica sweatshirt all those years ago. But I doubt it. I remember the world I lived in back then, and it wasn’t all that different from the one I live in now. I doubt it will change much more in my lifetime, despite my best efforts. What has changed is how I face it. I spent so much of my life like Betty, trying to bend and twist myself to please people, to fit into the one-size-fits-all mould that wasn’t meant for me. Not anymore. I’m a Veronica. I’m a brunette.