55 Super Awkward Middle School Photos

BuzzFeed staff share their most traumatic pics from the pimpled trenches of puberty. Add YOURS in the comments!

1. Ryan Broderick

Ryan Broderick

"I still make this face when I'm eating pizza."

2. Katherine Miller

Katherine Miller

"I'm ready for the first day of school!"

3. Alex Naidus

Alex Naidus

"Winning the unofficial First to Get a Mustache Award™ wasn't really *my* idea of a good time, but what can you do..."

4. Ashley Perez

Ashley Perez

"You win some, you lose some. Middle school was a big loss."

5. Erin La Rosa

Erin La Rosa

"Behold, my first and only glamour shot. I didn't have a lot of friends, but I DID have some awesome imaginary friends. Perhaps that's all too obvious."

6. Myles Tanzer

Myles Tanzer

"Bye y'all, thanks for coming to my bar mitzvah!"

7. Jen Lewis

Jen Lewis

"Welp."

8. Charlie Warzel

Charlie Warzel

"HERE IS A PICTURE OF ME STRUGGLING WITH CUPCAKES (don't ask) in like 6th grade."

9. Arianna Rebolini

Arianna Rebolini

"Can you tell my mom used to cut my bangs?"

10. Gavon Laessig

Gavon Laessig

"Found beneath some moldy comic books, here now is 190 pounds of glistening mullet jammed into a pair of Montgomery Ward husky pants."

11. Tracy Clayton

Tracy Clayton

"12 years old and already over everybody's shit."

12. Lara Parker

Lara Parker

"Here I am talking on a land line phone with retainers taking an original selfie on a KODAK CAMERA."

13. Austin Hunt

Chris Ritter

"Me in 7th grade getting knighted."

14. Javier Moreno

Javier Moreno

"Me in 8th grade. A 4'11 95lbs "football" player."

15. Sandra Allen

Sandra Allen

"Still my favorite photo of me ever taken. Eighth grade dance. Believe I was going for sexy? I have not gotten better at sexy."

16. Ashley Ford

Ashley Ford

"My school used to do something called "Toe' Up From the Flo' Up" Day for spirit week. I stole my grandma's wig for this occasion. I had a lot of spirit. I also used to play the drums."

17. Dorsey Shaw

Dorsey Shaw

"Me sitting next to Dad, hating life."

18. Summer Burton

Summer Burton

"I got that hat at a giveaway at Wendy's."

19. Deena Shanker

Deena Shanker

"I'm the one in the corner that nobody really wanted in the picture in the first place."

20. Dave Stopera

Dave Stopera

"me and the boys"

21. Alanna Okun

Alanna Okun

"Boys didn't slow-dance with me because I intimidated them a lot."

22. Justine Zwiebel

Justine Zwiebel

"Baby goth phase."

23. Isaac Fitzgerald (right)

Isaac Fitzgerald

"Myself and best friend Liam Patrick Walsh. I was selling cigarettes out of my locker that year. He would go on to attend West Point and is now a captain in the US Army. We are still close."

24. Jessica Misener

Jessica Misener

"This was my chunky blonde highlights phase. Thanks to late '90s Jennifer Aniston on Friends for the inspiration!"

25. Julie Gerstein

Julie Gerstein

"I hung out with delinquent skater boys, could you tell?"

26. Louis Peitzman

Louis Peitzman

"The truth is out there."

27. Chris Ritter

Chris Ritter

"My wardrobe was a mix of choker chains and t-shirts my mom wore in the 70's and 80's."

28. Jarett Wieselman

Jarrett Wieselman

"A bowl cut AND a tab collar? #YES1993"

29. John Stanton

John Stanton

"I have no idea what made me smile like that, cause there wasn't a damn thing funny happening when i was wearing that blazer."

30. Macey Foronda

Macey Foronda

"...?"

31. Tasneem Nashrulla

Tasneem Nashrulla

"I wanted to be the 'only guy' at my all-girls school. I succeeded."

32. Andrew Ziegler

Andrew Ziegler

"I never crushed that can."

33. Anne Helen Petersen

Anne Helen Petersen

"You knew I was cool because I got to hold the banner at the Lewiston, Idaho Rodeo Parade. In a cheerleading uniform."

34. Jaimie Etkin

Jaimie Etkin

"I lasted one summer at sleepaway camp. I needn't explain why."

35. Aylin Zafar

Aylin Zafar

"i got a short haircut bc i wanted to look like Victoria Beckham."

36. Cates Holderness

Cates Holderness

"When I was in 6th grade I decided I wanted super short hair. This was, in retrospect, not the best idea I'd ever had, but at the time I thought it might divert attention from my coke-bottle glasses and new braces. Little did I realize that drastically changing one's hair at the onset of puberty at the time when you are surrounded by hundreds of your hormone-fueled, spiteful, cliqueish peers might lead to heartache. Oh, how swiftly I learned."

37. Sami Main

Sami Main

"My hair matches my face in solidarity of dumbness, at least.”

38. Alex Alvarez (center)

Alex Alvarez

"I can't actually remember if this was in middle school or freshman year of high school, but here I am (center) at a robotics competition. We're in a midcentury living room at the Kennedy Space Center and apparently very, very happy about it."

39. Ellie Hall

Ellie Hall

"My dark past is that I acted in community and professional musical theater / opera for 13 years while growing up in Virginia. Of all the roles I played, nothing will be darker than this. 2002. I was in 7th grade. I went in to audition for the role of Fern and was cast as Wilbur the pig. "

40. Sam Stryker

Sam Stryker

"my butch phase y'all"

41. Katie Heaney

Katie Heaney

"13 years old, ornate Halloween costume, boy haircut + braces, etc. (I am hiding behind a ghost.)"

42. Kayla Yandoli

Kayla Yandoli

"Just an awkward 14-year-old hippie, visiting Woodstock."

43. Julia Furlan

Julia Furlan

"I tried to use the Gap to shield my entire body from sight, but I couldn't hide my face. It took a while to grow into my nose. And my eyebrows."

44. Joel Anderson

Joel Anderson

"This is a little too soft for football and coincidentally, the last known picture of me smiling. Circa 1990."

45. Julia Pugachevsky

Julia Pugachevsky

"Forever angsty."

46. Chelsea Marshall

Chelsea Marshall

"Here's me in front of a wall in Morocco, wearing some nice bungie cord pants and a bucket hat."

47. Erin Chack

Erin Chack

"CHACK SISTAHS, BREAKING BOYS' HEARTS SINCE LITERALLY NEVER."

48. Kristin Chirico

Kristin Chirico

"I'm the one with the Far Side Anthology in her lap. It was in my Easter basket. JEALOUS?"

49. Conz Preti

Conz Preti

"Being girlie wasn't my thing."

50. Simon Crerar

Simon Crerar

"Where do I start? Ridiculous spike? Check. Shocking shirt? Check. Worn corduroy? Check. Stripy socks? Check. Blues Brothers shades? Check. Climbing frame?! I have no idea what I was thinking."

51. Tasmai Uppin

Tasmai Uppin

"You can tell how much I hate pics. Avoiding the camera is my thing."

52. Candace Lowry

Candace Lowry

"idk I consider myself a baller..."

53. Whitney Jefferson

Whitney Jefferson

"7th grade: braces, Delia's t-shirt."

54. Jenna Guillaume

Jenna Guillaume

"Here is my 12-year-old self doing the 5ive "Got the Feelin'" dance, after having been given a terrible-on-purpose makeover by my friend (cut out of this picture so that she doesn't murder me in my sleep). You probably can't tell, but I had one eye with bright pink eyeshadow and one eye with bright blue eyeshadow and purple lip gloss on."

55. And finally, that time Matt Stopera was on MTV's Fanography: Britney:

youtube.com

Add your best/worst middle school pics in the comments!