upside down french braid

my oldest is a nerd. and before you get all butt-hurt on her behalf, she calls herself a nerd. she prides herself in this identity. when she ran for student government, her tag line was, "there's no better nerd for the job." she has plans to work for nasa one day. at 11 years old, she sat down with the college ranking issue of us news and world report and picked out her top three colleges. cal tech, mit, and stanford. in that order. no exceptions. and this isn't a pipe dream for her. the kid is smart. like really smart. like explaining my college level statistics homework to me when she was in the 6th grade smart. she won't graduate high school early, but she will be about half way through college when she gets her high school diploma in a few years. 

she's also a little bit of a jock. just a little bit. i mean, the kid swears up and down that chess is a sport, but she also plays soccer year round. she's tough on the field. she once had a coach who called her "the enforcer." 

the last time she wore a dress to school, it was black. she paired it with a ratty denim jacket and motorcycle boots. it was cute, of course. but the girly girls kind of scoffed at the whole thing. she is secure enough, though, so she was like, "whatevs, yo." but she hasn't worn a dress or skirt since then.

the point of all of this is to explain how NOT girly girl she is. she and her friends refer to dresses as "death traps." she'll wear one if she has to, for church or a wedding or something of the like, but they are not her go-to wardrobe choice. that said, she is at the age where she is experimenting with her personal style a bit. she's a skinny-jeans-boots-and-cardigan girl. usually with funky glasses. but this year, she started growing out her hair and wearing it in a side braid. she started wearing dangly earrings and asking if she could get a second ear piercing (after soccer season, of course). 

even with all this experimentation, sometimes she surprises me. when she came up with an idea of an upside down french braid, i was a little unprepared. so, i went to pinterest and checked out a few ideas and this is what we came up with.

yup. a braid. a bun. a bow. all we need is sparkles and ruffles and she'd meet her monthly allotment of girliness! still, super cute and maybe she'll let me do it for school one day.