turns out, I don't hate transitional lenses
they're actually great?
I’ve worn glasses since I was around 2, my mom can tell you through a gritted smile how I managed to hand over my first pair to the neighboring dog, a lanky mutt with tan short fur- who immediately demolished them by crunching down on them.
Over the years I’ve gone through at least a dozen eyeglasses, each of them looking promising in their shiny illuminated shelves at the time of selction. By the time I’m ready for my next pair, it’s a miracle I can still see at all. Scratches, chipped nose bridges, and an overall sense that the pair I’ve been wearing is ready for the retirement center- the junk drawer. (Why did we even keep them?!) When you’re a small 11 year old, and nothing else fits you, you’ll be doomed to wear the Disney collection glasses, at least for a few years until it’s time to level up to the black, weirdly nerdy square pairs that will serve as the focal point of all your photos for the next decade.
Nothing felt more like a punishment quite like being the kid in transitional lenses, no- seriously. Wearing glasses was already hard, nobody in fourth grade wants to be in them. Transitional lenses were considered the height of being lame. Actually, everything functional was considered lame, slicked middle parts in hair included. As a girl who has eye problems- we’ll get into this another time lol. I got made fun of, a lot. Especially for the glasses, as if they were a choice, like a bad pair of jeans. When I reached the ripe age of 14, I decided at my yearly glasses appointment that I was done being lame. I was ready to walk into my next year with glasses that made me cool. A word I’d often whisper to myself as if it was a dirty word, not something that I was allowed to align with.
After my mom and I selected the yearly pair of glasses, a squoval burgundy red Gucci with a tiny gold GG on the side, I immediately let it be known that this pair would NOT be a transitional pair. The overly friendly optometrist frowning and fussing that I wasn’t being practical. But I didn’t want to be practical, I wanted to be cool. Just like the other girls at school, that had glossier hair, and LL Bean backpacks with chunky monogramming. Somehow I thought, maybe if I forgo the transitional lenses, and just have basic glasses, that I would magically transform into one of them.
Last year, after my first trip to Warby Parker (I’m late to the party), I was asked the same age-old question; would you like to add transitional lenses? At first, on autopilot, I said no- forcing a firm voice. Then, I backtracked and the first time in over a decade, I said yes, actually I do want to try them. I wanted to see if I actually hated the darkening effect, or if I was just letting 14 year old me get in the way of a seriously convenient pair of glasses.
As it turns out, transitional lenses fucking rock. I gave up cursing for Lent, but I don’t think it counts over text, ok? Allow me to explain, if you gave them up after 14 too. You can walk around in the sun and not fumble to find your sunglasses. They tint in a way that makes me feel mysterious. I’ve grown to love wearing my glasses. I’m lucky enough to be able to work with brands that dress me, and that extends to my eyewear. I’ve got at least six pairs at any given time, but I find myself wearing the ones with transtion the most. The only thing is I still take them off for photos, a habit that I really need to grow out of. But old habits die hard. I’m slowly but surely taking the reins, and learning to love all the parts of myself I’ve been doing my best to forget, forgive, and maybe even stop complaining about. It might not seem brave by any stretch of the imagination, but wearing transitional lenses was my mega simple way of acknowledging that maybe you can look a little nerdy, and still be cool.