Single Girls' Survival Guide to Dating Pt. 2

To Recap: As a woman in her 20s who has faced a variety of men and women in the dating world, I have taken notes. I have come back to share all of the insider tips I have learned and added my own personal brand of humor and a whole lot of head shaking while you guys learn about how best to handle situations, such as attire, food, first dates, conversation, rejection, dating profiles, timing, and most importantly self-worth.

Welcome to Dating Attire Pt. 2!

Now, some girls will tell you that you need to wear something eye-catching or something that shows your best feature. While this may work, please for the love of all that is good in the world, don’t do this if you favorite thing about yourself is your boobs. This tactic lands assholes on your doorstep or DMs asking for nudes. Not the type of guy you wanna bring home to the fam. More on dealing with these fucks later.

So, you have a few options on this. Some girls depend on the opinions of their friends before picking and settling, which is perfect. Please, by all means, run an outfit by the council. They will be straight with you and tell you exactly what they think. This will weed out the unfortunate missteps on wardrobe choices, such as short daisy dukes.

Others, like myself, live alone and don’t take pictures of their outfits to send to the council to approve and for these women I say this: do not pretend to be a unicorn when you are a donkey.

This doesn’t mean I’m calling you an ass. I think all women have something that makes them a unicorn. I am saying, don’t dress like Madonna, if you’re more Ellen Paige. By this I mean, wear something you're comfortable in. I cannot tell you how many times I have bought new dresses for a date and then wanted to die because that’s not me. My date may compliment that all night, but, if you aren’t comfortable, it ruins the date. When your friends ask how your date went, you’ll remember ‘oh yeah that was fun, I wore that god awful outfit I fucking hate.’ See the problem?

It’s also a way of setting false expectations. He may think “oh she wears dresses, she’s probably into painting and reading and makeup” when in fact you could want to play video games and yell at 15-years-olds through your headset at two in the morning. No shame, because that's me.

How to Dress Your Body Type

If you’re anything like me, you worry about what you look like to people on certain dates. Welcome to the reality of being a woman. Join the club. If you aren’t sure about the outfit, think about how your grandma would react seeing this. Mine has seem some outfits that honestly, I am not proud of, but I also have a frame of reference for dates now. Positive.

For the women who wear all black — stop, this isn’t a funeral. Your date shouldn’t think he is dating the mortician or that he stole you from a re-enactment of the Addams family. Add some spice! I love black as much as the next girl, but a pop of color will do wonders on the image you’re creating.

Layers. Layers are a wonderful thing. I’m not talking putting a top over that super cute bralette you spent 34 dollars on at Victoria’s Secret. I am talking about a cute tank with a patterned cardigan and black skinny jeans. This gives a more put together look and shows care and attention.

Don’t wear that baseball T-shirt from your senior year of high school just to show you're still a size 8. No one cares. Sorry to break that to you. Dress with a sense of purpose and show care that you took the time and preparation to pick out that outfit. Don’t just throw on yesterday’s jeans with that black oversized sweater. Trust me, they aren’t impressed. I’ve done it and tested it, they notice.

If you’re like the rest of the family population, you either have something that you call a lucky outfit or maybe just your favorite shirt/pants/dress/skirt. Find a way to incorporate your lucky item into the outfit. It will inspire confidence in you and makes you shine that much brighter to them.

No matter what, just remember you’re super awesome no matter what and radiate that sense of confidence. That’s the most important thing you can wear.

Till next time, keep the humor and lightheartedness about the blood battle that is dating.