The slay comes from within: my journey from sweatpants to swag

Maya Hruskar ’23 Creative Director

Like many teenagers out there, it takes all of my energy, two iced coffees and a sprinkle of impending deadlines to get me through each day. I’m barely awake, wishing I were asleep, and generally going THROUGH IT for most of the week.

In these exhausting conditions of being a human and needing to go places and do things, it’s a wonder I manage to get by. But there are some genetic anomalies among us controversial “toxic man” red plaid sweatpants. That used to be about as fashionably adventurous as I ever got.

Last year, however, I decided to turn my life around.

I committed myself to the bare minimum of no longer wearing sweatpants to school, in a pretty lazy effort to get closer to the apparent confidence of these “fit slayers.”

It was an excruciating start. The denim of my jeans was so rough, horrifically fitted and I struggled to even slouch in the way I was accustomed. My only saving grace was that I through the initial transition.

As time went on, I started diversifying my outfits. I began by perusing the Urban Outfitters sale section for more pants (a great hack by the way), then raiding my brothers’ rooms for unused crewnecks. I cut all the T-shirts I didn’t wear to make them fit better, cropping them slightly and sometimes even doing away with the sleeves to make quasi tank-tops. I even went thrifting for the first time, picking up a fun bomber jacket and more unique tees.

My closet began to accumulate a range of basics that I could mix and match in infinite combinations, and I began putting more consistent thought into my outfits than I ever had before. I started walking straighter, sometimes because my outfit wasn’t slouch-compliant but also because of a new confidence I’d found. I wasn’t necessarily slaying, but

Nowadays, I’ve done away with the no-sweatpants rule -mostly out of desperation amid AP tests-but also because sometimes the oversized sweatpants and hoodie is the energy I want to present (that studious but also on-the-verge energy).

Being purposeful in my outfits hasn’t made me care more or less about how other people perceive me. Rather, I’ve started to perceive myself more positively than ever before. I’ve taken my experience as a lesson in how much of a difference little changes can make for your self-esteem. Positive choices compound. You might be only a decision away from a path to a completely different version of yourself that you may have never imagined before.

I’m now looking forward to a new life in a new place with higher stakes, where every decision I make may define the