I've passed countless groups of giggling teenage girls dressed alike, all perfect clones.

They all have meticulously straightened hair. It would be impossible for their heads to all look like that naturally. They wear those big, annoying pearl earrings that look like ones my great-grandmother had. They all wear a (slightly) different variety of a too-tight Hollister or Abercrombie shirt, showing off their albeit nice, flat stomaches, the fruit of their age. Over these similar shirts they wear the same style of North Face, in different colors. I spy several shades of nauseating pink, an olive, a purple or two, and a baby blue. They wear skinny jeans on their too-thin legs, capped with tall Ugg boots. The real thing, with the emblem bearing "UGG Australia" and the fussy suede that can't be worn in inclement weather without risk of ruin. Underneath these boots I just know their nails are manicured and painted in shades of cerisés and mauves.

Why, how, when did the individuality disappear? Middle school? Seventh grade? And when will it be restored to these girls, all desperate to fit in and be accepted?