Wear, Watch, Want #152: The Masked Denim Babysitter Edition

Wear: Athleta Everyday Masks

I have tried so many different masks. Eventually, I had my mom make some for me and even then she had to alter the pattern to fit my apparently unusual head. I couldn’t find a mask that didn’t hit me right in the eyes, didn’t make my ears fold in half, and didn’t slide all over my face if I spoke even one sentence while wearing it. Then I tried Athleta’s Everyday Masks and they are perfect. I’m only wearing them now. They fit my face, don’t tug on my ears, don’t hit me in the eyes, and don’t slide around. If you too have tiny ears and high cheekbones, I would suggest you try these masks. Added bonus: The colors are great and go with any outfit.

Watch: The Baby-Sitters Club

I am a huge BSC fan. I read all the books as a kid, and I loved the original TV show. I talk a little bit about my love of The Baby-SItters Club here, and also mention that I regularly sing the BSC TV show theme song, and let me tell you, that’s still very true. It’s a BOP.

When it was announced that Netflix was rebooting the series, I thought, “Ok, sure, fine. They’ll ruin it.” There’s this new trend of taking classic kids books and “updating” them to make them more relatable to modern kids. I haven’t read any of the new versions, but apparently they’ve done this with Lois Duncan books, and if my memory is correct (I devoured every Lois Duncan book as a tween), most of those books could be wrapped up in 10 minutes if cell phones existed. Plus, you learn about different things from older books that you might not have known about before! I only know about Howard Johnson’s from The Baby-Sitters Club! So know that going into this, I was NOT interested in updating the material to include cell phones and Instagram.

But the new BSC does an amazing, possibly perfect job of updating the source material. The club still uses a landline in Claudia’s room, and it’s explained in a completely sensible way. It actually makes more sense than anything else they could change it to. Also Stacey’s diabetes and her desire to keep it a secret is updated - in the original book (I hope I remember this correctly) she goes on a hike with a boy and doesn’t want to eat an apple because it would reveal that she has diabetes (?!) so she just faints instead. This made zero sense to me in the 90s, so I’d imagine it would make even less sense in 2020. Instead she has a seizure, which is how she finds out she’s diabetic, and some asshole kid videotapes it and puts it online. Now THAT explains why she’s so secretive about it!

The girls are also very age appropriate in a way I don’t think previous adaptations were. There is also more diversity! Mary-Anne is biracial, Dawn is Latinx, we all know Kristy is gay, but they don’t mention it, BUT there are multiple gay characters so maybe that’s in the cards for Kristy in future seasons. Mary-Anne babysits for a trans kid! They have a client that’s a kid with two moms! It’s all presented as normal and Not a Big Deal, which is the perfect way to expose kids to different experiences and identities. This show didn’t have to be half as good as it is, but it’s going hard and pulling no punches and even if you aren’t a lifelong BSC superfan, you’ve gotta watch it.

( Also, Alicia Silverstone plays Kristy’s mom and she is GLORIOUS. A PERFET TV MOM.)

Want: Denim Jacket

I’ve written about denim jackets twice. Here and here. Both times I talk about my Old Navy denim jacket that I had for eons, and how I maybe want to upgrade to the J Crew version. Well here’s the update. I bought the J Crew one and I wore it for years and years and it was perfect. Then I started lifting weights and my shoulders are now too broad and muscular to fit in my beloved J Crew denim jacket. So I went to my local J Crew to buy a larger size, but they didn’t have it. So I went to Anthropologie because Pilcro makes one with a lot of stretch in it, and I bought that one. NOW I’m having doubts, so I ordered both the J Crew jacket in a size larger than before, and the Pilcro one in a size larger than I bought, and I”m going to put all three in a try-on battle to see who wins.