Lookalikes.

My mum never had my hair cut from when I was born to when I was in year three! My hair was literally to my knees! When I look at photos from back then, my hair was beautiful, long and wavy, light brown with natural blonde highlights (the exact colour I want now!)Now, I was obsessed with Olivia Newton-John for most of my childhood, so when she cut her hair short, I suddenly wanted mine short. Mum finally gave in, took my final long hair photos, and off we went into the city to get my new Olivia hair do!
When It was done, I looked like I was thirty (I was 8!)! And much to my disgust, I didn't look anything like Olivia!!!

For those of you who are on facebook you will know that one of the applications put forward an exercise that everyone change their profile photo to one of someone famous that they have been told they look like. (I think there was more to it than that but by the time it did the facebook rounds that is how it was presented to me.)

I always find it amusing when people compare you to someone famous and I find that we usually have a different opinion about ourselves from those around us!

I love that one of my friends thinks I look like Sophia Loren (oh bless!). He has said this since he met me when I was 17 and he tries to convince everyone that I look like her. F.y.i, I DON'T LOOK A THING LIKE SOPHIA LOREN but I take it as a compliment and if that is how he sees me then I say, let him! It could be worse!

As a young teenager I was always told I looked like Mallory (Justine Bateman) from Family Ties. I can actually see the similarity with that one. At a Melbourne Cup function a couple of years ago I met a Perth breakfast radio host. He kept saying to me 'you look like someone famous but I can't think who it is!' I suggested Mallory and he absolutely agreed, so for the rest of the day every time I walked past him he would yell out the name Mallory at me.

It really amuses me when guys use 'Do you know who you look like?' as a pick up line. There are two occasions where this happened to me that particularly stick in my mind...
One time I was talking to a guy in a bar and he said 'You look so much like Linda Blair. Do you know who that is?'
My response (with absolutely no expression in my voice): 'Linda Blair? From 'The Exorcist'?!!!!' (All I could think of was how attractive the projectile vomiting scene was!)
He looked horrified! 'No, no Linda Blair from Wonder Woman!'
Linda Carter, HE MEANT LINDA CARTER!!!! BIG DIFFERENCE!!!!! Now Linda Carter I can deal with! In fact my oldest sister looked exactly like Linda Carter when she was younger, I was so proud to have a sister that looked like Wonder Woman.

The second instance that sticks in my mind was when I was talking to a group of people at a pub and this one guy kept saying to me that I looked like someone famous but he couldn't think who it was (blah blah blah). He must have said this to me at least ten times! Finally he clicked his fingers and said 'I know who it is! That actor in The Graduate.'
I said I had no idea who it was, I could only think of what she looked like and I knew I looked nothing like her!
He then said 'it was Ann Bancroft!'
Ok so this guy wasn't saying I looked like the daughter, he was actually saying I looked like Mrs Robinson. MRS ROBINSON!!!! Wasn't she meant to be over 50 in that movie?!!!

*One time when I was in Italy, I was sitting with my Aunty watching television. Gregory Peck came on the T.V. My Aunty (Dad's sister) said that my Dad looked like Gregory Peck! She obviously sees her older brother a little differently from how I see my Dad! I just looked at her thinking maybe something got lost in translation! My Dad looks like Tony Bennett, it is uncanny how much he looks like Tony Bennett, especially when he wears his glasses but I suppose if his sister wants to think he looks like Gregory Peck, she can! (For the record, I think Gregory Peck was gorgeous in his day.)*

I've been told I look like so many different people from a chubbier Danni Minogue to Norma Jean to Aishwarya Rai to Natalie Woods, I even got Anjelina Jolie once (believe me, I took that one and ran with it!!). I think I look like my Dad and possibly his sisters (although I have only met them a couple of times). There are a couple of similarities between myself and one of my sisters but I think the five of us kids actually look pretty different, although I have had people I don't even know be able to pick me as a member of my family straight away. I think mannerisms have a lot to do with how people see you. On lots of different occasions I've had people ask if my best friends are my sisters. I look nothing like them but after so many years we definitely would have picked up some similar mannerisms to make us seem alike.

I don't want to look like anyone else (although I wouldn't mind Christie Turlington's lips and Jennifer Hawkin's body) I just want to look like me. Of course there are many things I'd like to change about my appearance, but who doesn't have those things? I don't think I'd ever have plastic surgery done to change my face (when I was younger I wanted a nose job, now I couldn't care less). I find myself staring a lot when I see people who have had lots of facial plastic surgery because after a lot of it, they can start to look so... well...so plastic!

I find that if someone says you look like a famous person, it is rarely an insult, so even if you disagree, take it and run with it. I think the lookalike game is a fun game to play.

Until next time,
the last single 34yr old woman
xx