TOTBT Day 28: Lauren Oliver

Today we have Wonderful Lauren Oliver!!! She is author of the debut novel Before i fall, which i can not wait to read!! She is going to share with us her very special Halloween Treat! Enjoy!
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My name is Lauren Oliver, and I am a Halloween Grynch.
(Hiiii, Lauren Oliver.)
Okay, so for real, here’s the thing: When I was little, I loved Halloween. Probably all kids do, although I liked the holiday apart from its promise of bags and bags full of candy (my sister had the sweet tooth in the family, and because she was older and bigger, she usually confiscated all the good stuff as soon as we got home, anyway).
So yeah, the candy was besides the point. I loved Halloween because I loved the costumes.
When I was younger I dressed up as many things: a gypsy (pictures show me grinning, radiantly happy, with about a pound of black eye shadow smeared across my cheeks, as apparently my seven-year-old self believed that the primary mark of a gypsy was a fondness for avoiding baths altogether); a fairy; a pirate; a princess (of course); an octopus (a costume recycled from a school play, as my mother was of the waste not, want not generation); a chef; an acrobat.
They were real costumes—they allowed me to be someone else. It was like getting to play a game of make-believe with the whole world. For one night the world rewarded me for playing make-believe, instead of just telling me to do my homework or sit down for dinner, or any of the things that happened on the other 364 days a year that would rudely interrupt my play time.
But sadly, as I got older, Halloween lost its appeal. The costumes started to become not about transformation, but about the reveal: wear the shortest, tightest, sexiest outfit you can find, throw on a pair of cat ears, and voila! Sexy cat.
Railing against the kind of flaunting girls do, and are expected to do, on Halloween isn’t new, so I won’t go all fem-bot about it. But honestly, I have never at any point aspired to be or fantasized about being a slutty cat, a slutty nurse, or a slutty policewoman. There might be guys who fantasize about sexually experimental felines, of course, but dressing up for someone else isn’t fun, at least not for me. It reminds me of school portrait day and lame formal events and other boring things.
That’s why in recent years I’ve opted out of Halloween altogether. The fun, the magic, the mystery were gone.
But this year I’ve decided to get back in the game. And though you won’t find me rocking out in an octopus costume or smearing any of my precious black Mac eye shadow my cheeks, you won’t find me wearing a pair of cat ears, either.
Instead, I’ll be going down the mask road. I’m attending my first-ever masquerade, and while a fancy, glittery mask and a black-tie ball gown doesn’t exactly count as a real costume—it doesn’t allow me to pretend to be someone else, specifically—it will at least be a break from the ordinary. It will be fun and new and different and special; for one night, I’ll get to be something other, and better, than just the plain old, same old self.
Which I guess, come to think of it, is what makes Halloween so special—and why even a pair of cat ears and a miniskirt can sometimes do the trick.
So…happy Halloween! (Meow.)
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I am seriously blushing right now! I was the Cheshire Cat last year for halloween! It wasnt Slutty but it was not kid-friendly! But i totally agree! It is so much fun to dress up as someone new once a year! i love it! And OMG we are so simmilar, because tommorrow night im going to a mascarade ball too!(except it's for a 16th birthday party) I made myself a feather mask to wear with heels and a gorgeous dress! Thanks for sharing Lauren!