It’s February 1st! Which means it’s the first day of Girls Who Wear Glasses Month! I am super excited to kick off this amazing celebration of bespectacled beauties, ladies in lenses, awesome astigmatics, nearsighted nellies and farsighted foxes with a newly crowned girl who wears glasses — the amazing Meg Cabot!
(Yes. That Meg Cabot. I KNOW!!! But shh. I’m trying to be cool.)
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Everyone in my immediate family wears glasses. I married a man who wears glasses, whose entire family wears glasses, too. Most of our nieces and nephews now wear glasses.
It’s surprising our distant ancestors survived to produce offspring instead of getting eaten by a saber toothed tiger they couldn’t see coming.
Madam Secretary finds you specious.
I personally didn’t need glasses until the words on my computer screen began to get blurry. Even then I only needed reading glasses, which I thought a bummer until I discovered that you can tilt them in a dramatic fashion a la Hillary Clinton at the Benghazi committee hearings and say, “Really?” in a sarcastic voice, and come off as authoritative.
The poet Dorothy Parker is famous for claiming in the early 1900s that “Men don’t make passes/At girls who wear glasses” but I can assure you that this is no longer true. Now everyone seems to find people who wear glasses smart, and smart is the new sexy, or as many people are calling it these days, “smexy.”
The downside of this is that being perceived as “smexy,” or a “nerd,” has become increasingly popular, and tons of girls (and guys) are buying clear-lensed glasses they don’t need in order to look the part. This is not smexy at all, as illustrated by this brief Nerd PSA:
Recently my vision has gotten worse, so much so that I need to wear glasses all the time. The words “contact lenses” have been mentioned to me, but as someone who is frightened to stick foreign objects in my eyes, I’m happy to keep wearing glasses, especially when there are so many other people out there proudly wearing them, and kicking butt while doing so, like Sarah’s heroine:
So go ahead and get your smexy on, but remember to always keep it real.
One Smexy Author
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No better way to kick off Girls Who Wear Glasses month than with Meg — A terrific lady in lenses (or, as it is February 1st, should I say, A bespectacled birthday girl?)! Thank you so much for coming over to start the party, Meg…and happy happy birthday!
In honor of the release of One Good Earl Deserves a Lover, Meg’s happy to be giving away a signed copy of the latest installment of her Heather Wells mystery series, Size 12 and Ready to Rock, in stores now!
To win, tell us in comments…what kind of smart do you find most sexy? One commenter will be chosen at random on Monday.
February 1st, 2013 at 9:48 am
While I totally don’t mind contacts, glasses are generally the best thing ever. The fact that you can SEE and still change up the style at any point is so perfect! :D and the smart that is just naturally there, if that makes sense. Like they give off that aura of being smart but don’t have to show off. It’s totally sexy!
February 1st, 2013 at 11:49 am
I totally agree, Alexandra — especially when it comes to being able to switch out frames! I love the style of glasses…and that they’re becoming more and more associated with sexy!
February 1st, 2013 at 9:51 am
I like a smart person who can carry an intelligent conversation without being condescending to others in the circle. A smug, smart person is just rude, but a warm and welcoming, smart person is smexy!
February 1st, 2013 at 11:50 am
Totally agree! There’s a difference between confident-smart and know-it-all-smart. One is sexy, the other makes you want to throw yourself out a window.
February 1st, 2013 at 9:56 am
Hmmm.. what kind of smart do I find sexy? How about a man that ain’t afraid to ask for directions… in and out of the car.
And add me to the list of smexy glass-wearin’-women!
February 1st, 2013 at 11:52 am
A-men, buell!
February 1st, 2013 at 9:59 am
My husband loves the smexy look of my new glasses. He says they show off my eyes and he loves a woman who looks like she knows how to use her mind. :)
February 1st, 2013 at 11:51 am
Your husband sounds like a great catch, Moira!
February 1st, 2013 at 10:06 am
Wearing glasses Process
When you are told that you have to wear glasses you look to the other person witha face that says “I don’t want to”.
You order your glasses and complain about how expensive they are.
You put your glasses on and the first thing you notice is that there are a lot of things that you didn’t see before, like a small house in the top off hill, or that the sky is more blue than you thought, that the you can actually read clerly something far or close without forcing your eyes, and so on…
Then getting used to wearing glasses is another thing, you forget them frequently, you don’t put them because you are not used to do that, you feel funny, awkard. By forcing yourself to use them everyday, you get used to them that sometimes you forget that you are wearing them, you fell asleep with them, even get in to the pool or sea with them.
For me wearing glasses don’t make me look smart, dumbm pretty or ugly, they make see what I don’t wana miss.
February 1st, 2013 at 11:52 am
Beautifully put, Paulina! I’m with you! We have a better view of the world! xo
February 1st, 2013 at 12:19 pm
Awesome post. I, too wear glasses and will probably never wear contact lenses. I’ll take smexy.
February 1st, 2013 at 12:26 pm
My favorite is smart funny, a la Seth macfarlane. That guy is a genius and turns it into jokes , how great is that?!?
February 1st, 2013 at 12:39 pm
Oh, Sarah…I’m with you 100%…I have the biggest crush on him! He’s fabulous! And can carry a tune, too!
February 1st, 2013 at 12:28 pm
I’ve been wearing glasses/contacts since second grade. I am now on my, what, 30th pair? The contacts have gone away (my eyes are too dry now) and LASIK is best kept in the torture scenes of movies. But I love my glasses, and in fact, when I had to get my latest drivers license picture, I HAD TO TAKE THEM OFF (because of facial recognition software in case I go postal one day). I looked, well, like not me!
Here’s to girls who wear glasses. We’re so awesome. ;o)
And I preordered your book, Sarah! When I get a break from grading papers, it’s there on my iPad, waiting for me!!!
-Susan
February 1st, 2013 at 12:38 pm
So, I already have a signed copy of the book and got to meet Meg (Mocktails with Meg at CCPL in NE Ohio last summer), as well as eating gluten free cupcakes with her. But I did want to say I have worn glasses since grade 3 (and afterwards moved from the middle math group to the top), and I can’t imagine life without them. I am book smart too, blessed with super smart parents/family. In a nod to glasses, I love how Tina Fey (another glasses!) turns her life to funny stuff. And Meg, for that matter too. It sucks to be smart and miserable (been there), so those inspiring women make me laugh and smile, which is great!
February 1st, 2013 at 12:49 pm
I am like Meg who does not like putting anything in my eyes, I have tried contacts and hated it. It is so much easier to fall asleep with my glasses on than having contacts in! Happy month to all
February 1st, 2013 at 2:20 pm
I love people who are book smart – they retain facts easily and LOVE learning as much as I do. I’ve always found that very attractive.. and fascinating :)
February 1st, 2013 at 5:35 pm
I’m also a glasses wearer. I got glasses when I was in grade school after I realized that even sitting in the front row, I couldn’t see the chalk board.
Now I treat my glasses like an accessory. I have a fun pair I wear out with friends, another pair I wear to the gym or when I’m working around the house, and a pair I wear to work.
I think intelligence leads to confidence which in my opinion, leads to smexiness!
February 1st, 2013 at 6:58 pm
I like smart a$$ people and not in the snarky mean person way but in a irreverent smart way.
February 1st, 2013 at 7:18 pm
I love glasses~! I need to get new ones since my eyes too have gotten worse. But I think I just want a new frame for the lenses.
I love men who looks good in glasses with and with out. Especially when they wake up in the morning with glasses! Or when they’re reading in a nice cozy library stacked with books~ smart men who are good with numbers are a plus, along with intelligent conversation is great too.
February 1st, 2013 at 7:32 pm
I was that girl in middle school with the glasses that always slide down my nose. I don’t know why I didn’t get a better fitting pair, but my friends and I came up with this weird code. She would make a signal with her hands and I would know I needed to push my glasses up. There are plenty of days when I still feel like that awkward 14-year-old.
My favorite kind of smart-sexy is subtle. I like smart guys who let you find out, through the course of things, that they’re smart. If someone walks around broadcasting their intelligence, it’s definitely not sexy.
February 1st, 2013 at 8:34 pm
really smart, but not arrogant about it
February 1st, 2013 at 9:14 pm
When I was a teenager and found out I had to wear glasses I was at first unhappy until I discovered that when I wore glasses people actually paid attention to what I was saying instead of what I looked like!
What I like about people that are smart isn’t what they say but how they listen! A truly smart person to me is one who listens to all options before forming an opinion and also who also tries to find out all the information before forming an opinion based on beliefs and not facts.
February 1st, 2013 at 10:29 pm
My favorite smart is someone who’s smart with humor :-)
February 2nd, 2013 at 5:50 am
I do find smart guys sexy.It tends to make a guy that I may find sort of attractive much more so :)
February 2nd, 2013 at 6:15 am
I think people who use logic to figure out their problems are sexy.
February 2nd, 2013 at 7:19 pm
I got my first pair of glasses in kindergarten and by high school my lenses were so thick my nickname was “Bullet Proof.”
The sexiest kind of smart guy is one who doesn’t feel the need to flaunt his smarts but isn’t hiding them either.
February 3rd, 2013 at 4:04 pm
I like quietly smart. None of the arrogance and other such nonsense, if he acts like he knows everything (even if he does) it is a no go. But I totally find smart sexy.
February 3rd, 2013 at 4:37 pm
MEG LOOKS SO HOT IN GLASSES. Mannnn. I have glasses, but I never wear them. Guess I should start!
February 3rd, 2013 at 10:49 pm
I’m a girl who wears glasses! Both my daughters do too. Not too many male characters wear classes though, have you noticed?
February 4th, 2013 at 1:53 am
We followed your blog via facebook and are happy to have found it. Loved your post!! Brilliant and fresh. Both Inion & Mathair wear glasses, though mine came early by age eight. I love them, and they feel like an extension of my body. I heard the term 4-eyes more than one time growing up, although I don’t anymore! To me, sexy is the quiet, strong guy. I love a man that keeps you guessing. Once again great post and we look forward to reading more of your blog in the future.