Meredith opened me back up. While she may not have known the reason I’d stopped caring about what I wore or understood the coping strategy behind my aesthetic complacency, she knew that it had to change. She knew it was important for human beings to feel happy with how they looked, that dressing as you want—not necessarily expensively or even “well,” but of your own volition and according to your heart’s desires—was an important part of expressing your agency and identity in the world. It was a way to tell the world you valued yourself and knew who you were.
