For JenyBean's 30th birthday, she decided, most appropriately, to have an 80s themed birthday party, and invited all of her friends to come dressed as an 80s cartoon character or an 80s superhero. (The birthday girl herself was finally going to dress up as her all-time favorite character, Wonder Woman.) The problem was, what should I be? Who were my favorite 80s characters? Well, there was Rainbow Brite, but Jenybean had done that costume for Halloween once already. There was SheRa and Strawberry Shortcake, but with both of them having licensed costumes out, I was sure someone else was going to snap them up. (I was wrong.) There was Jem, but every girl and her sister was going to be Jem. (I was right!) In addition, I've mentioned before that I prefer using my own hair for costumes as much as possible--it's much more comfortable, and much easier. So who did that leave?

As a child, I used to love the show Small Wonder. I couldn't even tell you why, maybe I just liked strong female characters even as a child? And what 80s kid DIDN'T love robots, they were all the rage! And it seemed like it would be an easy enough costume to do, just look for a red dress with white polka dots on eBay, and a white pinafore. No problem. I ran into a slight snag when the pinafore turned out to be WAAAY longer than the hem of the dress, but I just rolled it at the waist about three times or so, and put in a few stitches (not too many, as I may want the unaltered pinafore at some future point for all I know) to keep it. For her hair, I just let my hair (and my BANGS! Which you have never seen before and will never see again) air dry to reach its naturally curly straight. Knee socks I borrowed from Lou, flat Mary Janes I had from my Tomoyo costume, and I was all set.