11 Readers Share Their Favorite School Photos
Do you have a favorite school photo? We asked this question on Instagram and oh. my. gosh. did people deliver. Here, 11 Cup of Jo readers share their school portraits and the feel-good stories behind them…
Above: “My kindergarten photo makes me laugh because my mom bought a uniform that was three sizes too big so it would ‘last.’ I ended up wearing it well into elementary school.” — Maddie, New York
“Here I’m in the third grade, and the sports background was very much a ‘I swear I am not gay please no one find out I am gay’ trying to fly under the radar moment. That tie was my FAVORITE, and I wore it every day. I went to a Catholic school, where ties were the only form of self expression we had.” — Dan, New York
“I love my seventh-grade photo. It was right before I hit puberty, and there’s still so much ‘girl’ in me. My eyebrows are still intact, before I overplucked them the next year, after I got my braces off and felt hot.” — Erin, North Carolina
“In fourth grade, I thought I resembled Jennifer Aniston, and my parents never told me otherwise. My hair, my smize, my Limited Too shirt — I had no idea how awkward I was. Now I hope to impart the same confidence in my daughter that my parents instilled in me.” — Sari, Illinois
“In 11th grade, I was a springboard diver, class vice president, and member of the art club, AND I went to Lilith Fair. I peaked in high school. Everyone’s worst fear. Hahaha.” — Sharon, Connecticut
“When I was in third grade, my uncle went to Paris and brought me back a beret. It immediately became my entire personality. I was a budding theater kid with big feelings, and I told my mom that I’d be wearing the beret in my school picture. God bless her for not turning it into a fight. She always encouraged me to be exactly who I am.” — Katy, New Jersey
“For my second grade photo, my mom let me wear dangling Mexican hoops for the first time. That was the day my love for wearing hoops began.” — Lisa (left), California
“In sixth grade, this was my face after the photographer said, ‘Say BOYS!’ Maybe I would have given a big smile for ‘puppies,’ but not boys!” — Katherine, Georgia
“The year is 1987. I’m in seventh grade, and nobody has figured out that I have naturally curly hair, so my mom gives me a HOME PERM to try to tame my mane. Despite how cringey this photo is, I still see myself today, the optimistic dreamer who’s always quick to smile.” — Tammy, Ontario
“I call my first-grade photo my Ramona the Pest look! Now, as a middle school teacher, I share my school photos with my students so they can see that we all had our awkward stages.” — Martha, Washington
“Someone commented ‘bombastic side-eye’ when I shared this senior photo on Instagram. The photographer was aiming for a ‘gentle gaze,’ but my resting b*tch face was not cooperating.” — Leah Wise (remember her week of outfits?), Texas
Thank you for sharing! Does anyone else have iconic school photos? We want to hear about them.
P.S. Readers share their favorite birthday celebrations and 11 reader comments on childhood memories.
Tags: reader comments, reader outfits
Comments
122 commentsTHE BERET!! I am dead. When I was 11 my dad took me to see Phantom of the Opera and bought me a necklace with a mask charm. That became MY whole personality and I, too, was a budding theater kid with big feelings.
this brought me so much joy especially the beret as personality; so pure, so good!
Martha still has the exact same mischievous look in her eyes…. and her strawberry-themed outfit is FABULOUS!
My brand-new 6th grader gave me Leah Wise’s look as she walked out the door for picture day yesterday and I HOPE that’s the face she made for the photographer. It would capture this time in our lives so perfectly! I turn her school photos into magnets and keep them on the side of the fridge so I can gaze at her changing adorableness whenever I stand at the stove. From preschool’s giant cheeks and tiny teeth to last year’s shining confidence and enigmatic smirk
<3
These are so fun! Sari, I see the resemblance too! I would love to know where Maddie’s jumper is from!
It looks like Babaa!
Love this! I still laugh how I posed with a surfboard, flip flops, and wore a puka shell necklace in my senior photos. The kicker is I’m from Ohio and nowhere near an ocean!
As a school photographer, this may be one of my favorite CoJ posts!
Sari you did look like Jennifer Aniston!
A couple of year my sons’ daycare had a photo day that I completely forgot about, they were 2 and 4 at the time and mornings were chaotic (still are!). I only realized when I saw the proofs that I had sent my youngest in his threadbare camouflage pyjama bottoms with a stained dinosaur sweater and his brother had insisted out of nowhere on wearing a headband with a pair of antlers on it (it was March). In the siblling pucture they are BEAMING arms around each other, and it ended up being my favourite picture ever :)
This is such a delightful comment
Honestly Sara, I see it too.
Is Leah the original Aubrey Plaza?!
100%!
haha! Fun fact: one of my friends went to high school with her.
Truly cackling at these comments.
Loving these! Everyone is so sweet, then and now. I have a photo from the orthodontist when I got my braces off (and was growing out my bangs). I thought it was the WORST photo of my LIFE, and it lived on the fridge for far too long. When I found it recently I was able to say ‘aw’ at the eager, happy, 12 year old in the photo. Also, Erin’s school photo is somehow reminding me of either an American Girl or Bobbi Brown model from a book I must have had…
The comments today are life giving! This is such a fun post I don’t have the picture anymore, but I have vivid memories of my 5th grade picture day outift which was a dress that looked like it was a floral blazer with a cami and skirt – so early 90s. I loved that child office attire outfit HARD and apparently it was inspiring because my younger sister wore it a couple years later for picture day as well! We both laugh about it to this day, why did we or anyone think this was a child’s outfit?
these are so good, and Katherine from Georgia is my absolute hero <3
Wow, how did you guys get Jennifer Aniston to share her fourth grade pic??
My HS would not let me opt out of a senior photo, so they sent someone to take a stealth photo that is now in the yearbook and on every reunion tag. It is even worse than I remember.
all amazing! esp love “bombastic side-eye” lol
These are adorable!! This post made me reflect on my own relationship with school photos. I always found them stressful because I have memories of my mother being so disappointed with how they turned out. It seemed her eyes immediately went to an out-of-place hair clip or lopsided shirt. So now I absolutely relish the opportunity to gush over my kid’s school photos and spend way too much money on them every year (and I do genuinely adore them!).
Sari! I love your photo! I had that LimitedToo shirt as well in 1996. I tell people that was the year I became aware of what “cool” meant: I wore that shirt at least once/week, Romeo + Juliet came out and I felt it DEEPLY, I got my period for the first time. It was the year everything changed and I hold that shirt in my memory as one of the key agents of the change in me!
My husband and his sister went and took photos for their mom for a gift. The photographer had them posing in all these awkward poses. One with her laying on her stomach and his arm tented over her . Anyway, after a while the poses got so awkward they said “you know we are brother and sister right ?” Thr photographer said “no I thought you were boyfriend and girlfriend !” Haha! I still laugh to this day!
Natalie I am crying laughing!!! Hysterical!
LOL hahhahahhahahahaha. The tent arm!!!! “We are brother and sisters”. Dead.
THIS Ramona the Pest!
Omg love this
My 7th grade pictures were so objectively dreadful that I hid the packet facedown in my underwear drawer when I brought them home. Somehow my mom didn’t think to ask me where they were, or maybe she knew all along and had pity on me! Those photos never saw the light of day again until I was packing to leave for college. Luckily so out of date they were never displayed!
In all of my childhood photos, I look extremely disheveled and have this ridiculous ponytail like Pebbles from the Flinstones, and I’m often looking confused. There are almost none of me looking cute in a traditional way, which as a kid was hard! But my husband thinks this is the funniest thing ever, in a kind sweet way, and I once left a particularly ridiculous photo of me in his work notebook as a joke (à la the ugly baby prank in Gilmore Girls iykyk) and he laughed so hard. But I realized a week later that he’d kept the picture and now it’s part of his general desk stuff, which I think is hilarious and sweet because even though I was not adorable, I was very much my chaos goblin self and I feel like he genuinely appreciates it. Sob. I should add that it’s a home office, I wouldn’t really want his coworkers seeing it, lol.
Leah’s photo looks like a painting! and I her week of style is great. all of these were so fun!
Oh these precious photos! The eyes are always still the same!!! My daughter is 9 years old and it kills me how little girl she still is. She likes sequins, and ties a big scarf in her hair to look like Rapunzel when she goes out and is deliciously unselfaware in a way that rapidly diminishes as we all grow up as girls into teenagers and women. This post reminds me of that process, love it!!!!
Apparently I had a favorite sweater in elementary school because I’m wearing it in my school photo THRE YEARS in a row! To be fair, it was pretty cool: jewel-tone dark pink with black stars and 3/4 sleeves. One year I wore my “Debbie Gibson” hat with it! Child of the eighties right here!
The beret has me cryyyying
Katherine, what a perfect expression and perfect reaction to this moment. No notes.
One year the picture day was the same day as my daughter’s 7th birthday. She wore her birthday crown and sash in all of her pictures that day and looked like an absolute star!
Laughing out loud at Leah Wise’s picture. My son is almost 16 and hates picture day. He either makes goofy face or just outright refuses to get his picture taken
I don’t even remember if I thought the photographer was being stupid. I do remember taking picture day very, very seriously. It took me forever to pick an outfit (I didn’t submit the full body shot of me in a white bubble skirt with a massive elastic belt and long beaded necklace.
Leah, you win! This is the face I would have loved to have had the cahoonas to have in all of my school pictures. I despised picture day! Thank you for the belly laugh! I will never forget this amazing picture!
Not sure if ‘cahoonas’ is an intentional feminization of ‘cojones,’ but it’s cracking me up!
Solidarity forever, lol
Every one of these photos is SO DARLING. The vintage school photos and the current ones! Gah! This made my day.
My most memorable (and sad) was 2nd grade and two days before picture day we had pizza for dinner. The sauce was too hot. I took a bite, the cheese pulled off and stuck to my chin and seriously burned it. I had a scabbed over burn for my school picture and my mom couldn’t afford retakes.
This was literally me (twice!) last week, and I’m 36.
Our daycare hired somebody for a Christmas-themed photo shoot and they paired siblings. It’s the first “portrait quality” photo we have of our two boys, they were 4yo and 9 months. My four year old was staged with his legs to support his little brother and is clearly trying hard to smile. They gave him a large, round ornament to hold and where did he end up dangling it? Right in front of his baby bro’s crotch, who is sitting up with legs splayed and a stunned look on his face. They are now old enough to understand why the location of the ball is so funny.
Oh my god, so sad I missed this post on Insta. I have a GEM of a photo that has become the contact picture my friends use for me on their phones. Let’s just say that I could never quite decipher where to look for school pictures. 😂
These are so wonderful! In my mom’s kindergarten photo she is holding her favorite toy, a stuffed chimpanzee she named Zippy. She would play with it at home and try to take care of it like a baby doll, dressing it and feeding it. Her older sister was on her case saying she couldn’t do that since it was a chimp and not a baby. My mom wouldn’t let Zippy be pushed aside. He made the photo shoot.
Love the beret!
Two fav’s for me – one of me wearing a orange sweatshirt with an honest to goodness green plastic hula skirt as a necklace. Yes of course I had an asymmetrical hair cut and giant glasses. It was the ’80s. Second is of my son in first grade. His shirt is oddly bunched to the side and I found out later that the school aid was crouched on the floor with a fistful of his shirt desperately trying to get him to sit still for the length of a shutter click. So perfect! And all the praise possible to all the paras who got us through!
The last photo is sooo RookieMag coded and reminds me of this iconic photoshoot which I was obsessed with as a teen https://www.rookiemag.com/2011/10/teen-witch/
Ha, and the person in the last photo is now a member of the clergy!
This made me think of how I would love CoJ to do a piece on painful memories turned poignant. The year we moved to the U.S., my parents frantically rushed to buy me an outfit for the 5th grade orchestra “dress rehearsal” … only for me to show up the next day and realize it was not a “dress up” event. I was MORTIFIED and FURIOUS and IN PANTYHOSE. Looking back I have so much compassion for my parents’ eager but misplaced attempts to make sure I fit in. Sometimes the story isn’t “feel good” in the moment, but it ages into something beautiful.
Now I have to really wonder why we even call it “dress” rehearsal?!
@ Second Violin, To make sure the costumes fit, as opposed to regular rehearsal when you just wear whatever.
I have a fun story. I was in third grade convent school (typically convent schools are run by extremely strict nuns). I was on choir and we were practicing and one of the Mother Superiors who was supervising said, someone is “off key”. She walked around us and stopped by me and said “you”. They couldnt get me off the program because, outfits for everyone participating in the program had been ordered. I was then strictly ordered by this crazy woman that I can only mimic singing and cannot sing on the day of the event. Imagine what it did to my emotional state to pretend to sing, shake my head and tap along etc. I used to tell my mom, I am going to sing on the day of and what can she do after the event? Lol. I have a picture of me from that event/school year annual day. I will never forget the pictures or the story, lol
Your story so reminds me of a similar incident in my childhood 1-2 years after we moved to the US. My parents were very diligent (and literal!) in completing the sleep-away camp checklist and purchased a miniature broom and dustpan for my “mess kit.” Imagine my horror arriving at breakfast the first day of camp with nothing for them to serve my food on! The dining cabin had zero plates or utensils for the campers and the kind camp nurse drive to town to buy me and my brother some paper plates and plastic cups and utensils. Our family still has the “mess kit” and we laugh about it every time someone uses it!
I love this — “dress rehearsal”makes no sense at all! Hats off to all the parents out there who are doing their best!
Helena that is so sweet! Why is it called a mess kit? Your parents interpretation made more sense :)
I love these! Leah’s photo could totally be a Sweet Valley High book cover: https://www.shannonsweetvalleyreboot.com/covers-svh
biggest compliment! I was obsessed with the rebooted covers from the early 2000s.
Oh I’m sad I missed the call for this one, there’s one school photo that is legend in my family. I must’ve been in first or second grade, I’m wearing a lime green mock turtleneck (with matching socks), my mom’s butterfly necklace, and sporting a MEAN black eye from a soccer game. I’ve was always a rambunctious kid, so I’m glad picture day captured me in my truest form.
Love!
Can we share our worst driver’s license photos? I got one that was so bad a few years ago I was falling over crying with LAUGHTER at the DMV. The woman asked if I wanted to re-take it and I said no. I moved to a new state and have a new license now, but I still look at a picture of it when I need to laugh.
My mom decided to give me first-time bangs the night before my second grade picture day. There I am with one inch bangs (at an angle), two blonde braids, and puffy eyes as red as my sweater.
Growing up pre-social media, my mom would encourage me to use yearbooks to find pictures of haircuts I wanted to try. I have so many fond memories of schlepping my middle school yearbook to Great Clips, pointing out the cool bangs of an artsy girl a year older than me or a fun bob on another girl in Student Council. Looking back, props to Mom for pointing me to attainable, reasonable haircuts of real-life girls instead of magazines at the salon!
I love this so much!
My daughter looks absolutely FURIOUS in her school photo from last year; like she’s just waiting for the day to be over so she can invite the photographer to meet her in the parking lot and beat him up. “What happened?!?” I asked. “He told me to show him my nicest smile, Mom.” Obvs I ordered the 8×10″.
When I was in about grade 10 my mom decided we needed family photos and picked my younger brother’s outfit… a sweater with a mountain climber on it. He was having none of it and decided to be the least cooperative person for the photographer. But he was making the most hilarious faces and had the photographer laughing SO hard. He did finally get a few good ones but also gave us proofs of all the others. I made a collage of them up in my room to enjoy for all time.
In my high school year book, there’s a photo of a semi-circle of girls including myself…who is getting groped by an out of focus stranger’s hands. I am making a WTF face in my tee shirt and jeans while my friends smile obliviously at the camera. High school is rough.
I was on a work the day of my daughter’s Pre-K school photo. She had voluminous curls that were hard to tame and went undbrushed a lot of days. My husband knocked on our neighbor’s door with a hopeful brush in hand and asked what to do about the hair for the school photo. Our neighbor was a serious economist with pin straight hair and three young boys. She looked my husband in the eye and said “well, there’s always next year.” I love that wild-haired photo and the story that goes along with it!
The way I would react if a dad came over to my house in the morning asking for help with his kids hair instead of just you-tubing it
today is picture day for my boys (10 yo and 5 yo). i will definitely be showing them this post after school today. xx
My mom hated the fake smiles that we would sometimes give for school photos, which she called “Poop Your Pants” smiles. The last thing she would say to us when we walked out the door on picture day was always, “No ‘Poop Your Pants’ smiles!!!”
Made me tear up… we never had a picture day in school back in India where I grew up. Now my daughter is in middle school here in the U.S., and I forget I need to dress her up for picture day… she chooses her own dress and hairstyle and is totally herself every year on her year book pictures.
I’m staring at my favorite school photo of all time, which hangs in a frame on my office wall. The photo is of my daughter, “Annie,” in preschool, age 4. She had been Elsa for Halloween and loved the crown from that costume. It was silver with fake blue gemstones. I had bought the least expensive costume available and the crown looked just like that – cheap and already partly falling apart – but my daughter loved it and wanted to wear it for her school photo. I made up a white lie about crowns not being allowed and instead I took Annie to an accessories store, where she picked out a bunch of sparkly hair clips with butterflies and flowers and seemed excited about them. I styled her hair the morning of the school photos with her new clips and she looked adorable. But unbeknownst to me she had hidden in her school backpack not only her Elsa crown, but also some plastic beaded necklaces of the kind people throw off floats in Mardi Gras. Annie had been wearing those necklaces to school earlier in the year but apparently wouldn’t stop whirling them around on her fingers and whacking things, so her teacher had forbidden them. Anyway, once Annie into the chair for her photo, she removed all her new clips from her hair, put on the crown, hung the necklaces off of the crown so beads draped down both sides of her face, and gave the photographer a death stare. That’s how he took the photo. The teacher distributed the photos in class about a month later. My daughter seemed a little nervous to show me hers that afternoon, but she took a breath, pulled the envelope with the photos out of her backpack, and said, “Good news Mommy! Crowns were allowed after all!” And as soon as I looked at the photo, I loved it. It was so her: devious, imperious, victorious. My mother in law calls it the Viking Queen photo.
We need to see this photo!
Oh my gosh, this is amazing. My daughter is in kindergarten, and this sounds like something she would do. We have picture day next week, so one can hope!
please please can Cup of Jo have a new series where one of the amazing artists here illustrate some reader’s comments? I vote for this comment being made into a mini comic!
LOVE this!!
This was a hilarious story. I was laughing at every line.
I love this SO much
Oh my gosh this had me laughing so hard this morning!
Oh my God, I am CRYING at my desk. This is hilarious!
“devious, imperious, victorious” These are such fun adjectives to describe your daughter — what a diva!
100% that was the right face to make after the photographer said “say ‘BOYS’!”
My thoughts exactly!
Totally!!!
Exactly, EW!
The night before third grade pictures my mom decided to give me a Toni home perm. The next morning I was a fuzzball. My sweet teacher was apparently as appalled as I was because she had me stand next to her ALL morning, no matter what she was doing, and kept brushing my hair into submission until photo time!Bless you, Mrs. Lugabihl.
This brought up a specific question I’d love to hear from others on: for those of you with kids who look *just* like you, how do you navigate the constant conversation about appearances? I have a 2.5 year old who looks soooo much like me, friends and family comment all the time (especially when old school photos circulate)! Of course I’m extremely proud because I think she’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, but I don’t want her to compare herself to me. My typical response is “genetics are wild!” And then move on. But just wonder if anyone a little further along in this journey has tips. I never looked like my mom which I struggled with, too—maybe there’s no winning here!
As the 4th child in a family of pod people, I didn’t mind it and there is literally no escaping it. I was at a family funeral for my sister’s father-in-law and I warmly received peoples condolences because they thought I was her. And now my son looks like he could be in the line up with her children! I do think though, just continue to look for cues from your child if it is a welcome comparison or not! There might be times it feels lovely and there might be times they hate it and not knowing when, well, dang it, that’s being a parent… What I hated more was when people told me that I looked like a celebrity that I didn’t particularly feel was beautiful – just because we both had a wide smile with prominent teeth.
I was dropping my daughter off for college and the bookstore clerk said “Y’all have the same face.” I don’t mind our similarity at all, not even now when my daughter is gorgeous, slender, taller than me, and cooler in every way. I just stand next to her looking middle-aged and frumpy, giving her a look into her future, 35 years older and 35 pounds heavier.
I lost my mom 23 years ago and am closer to her age when she passed away. Growing up, I didn’t think, I looked like her. Now, at times, I look in the mirror and see her. When I wear her sarees or her jewelry, I send her siblings ( my aunts/Uncles) a picture as they are reminded of her. So, I would say it is a lovely thing for your kid to look like you
I look a lot like my mom. When I was small, aged 4 or 5, I learned by trial and error that the answer adults expected to “Where did you get those big brown eyes?” was “My mom” although the exchange did not make much sense to me — why were grownups asking this strange question? Later, I read about a child who, asked where she’d gotten her eyes, said “They came with my head!” :) But mostly I liked looking like my mom. In college, my friends often commented on the resemblance and it was nice to hear.
These responses are so sweet and make me feel better—thanks all! 💜
My poor son is the spitting image of me (less so now at 16 but as a nine year he looked like the little me who was always mistaken for a boy…) Being my son, it is not commented on much outside our family home which is a good thing. His brothers tease him and it feels good natured in our family. Peak moment for me when he came home from school talking about an 80s dress up day and who he could dress up as. There were the usual suggestions and then we hit on it- he could go as his 16 year old mother (1988). It was the most endearing and affectionate moment where we celebrated our genetics despite us both being red haired, freckle and a mum who once looked just like him :)
I’m the spitting image of my mum and have been told so my whole life. We have (somewhat hilariously) ended up living in the same apartment complex (longer story about the benefits intergenerational living with separate homes haha) after living on different continents since I left home at 18. Some of the residents regularly mistake us despite me being a foot taller and 26 years younger! Needless to say I have upped my face care routine :| The only time it bothered me was in the early years of my parents divorce when “just like your mother” was not being used as a compliment. For me it ties to my similar looking maternal grandpa (now passed) and my aunt. It also helps that people often compliment my mum for being beautiful and she was generally very body positive so I never heard negative comments about features that I shared. I think your “genetics are wild” comment is great but also remember if your kid is seeing themselves mirrored in you, negative-self talk about your own looks will possibly be read as things to think about negatively themselves.
Why do these make me tear up!!!! I love when we can see our childhood selves with so much love and humor.
I love how Maddie is wearing an oversized sweater in her present-day photo! The oversized look is still working for her!
I noticed that too! She looks great in the oversized look, for sure.
In 10th grade I wore a long sleeve tight fitting shirt in my EXACT skin tone. I looked like I was naked but had no nipples. Horrible lol
I laughed so hard at this..
hahaha
Amazing 🤣
DYING! this is too good! Can you send to COJ? I would love a weekend comment highlight where we get to see this photo
Our school district is K-2 in one school, then grades 3-5 move to a new school. It can feel like a big transition! At my daughter’s third grade orientation, the teacher had a framed 8×10 photo of HER third grade school picture on her desk and I thought it was just the sweetest and most welcoming gesture
Leah’s week of outfits was one of my favorites, and this school photo just seals the deal. That look belongs to every high school girl ever!
Ditto! Leah just seems like a completely delightful human being.
Thanks y’all!
I have a school photo where I blinked and before my mom had it sent back for retakes, my dad naturally made like 1000 copies of it that I still occasionally find on 8×10 pieces of paper hidden around my house after he visits.
My husband’s school photos make me feel so absolutely tender toward him!
Edit: infinitely
This is the best! I think you should do this once a month until all your readers have submitted a pic! So maybe continue infinatly…
I love this. Raising my hand for the most memorable ones being the years we had the laser light show background and the casual lean against a ladder photo too. Oh what a time the late 80s/early 90s were!
My husband uses the laser light show for his work photo background!!!!! All I wanted in elementary school was the laser background and sadly, my mom always made us go with clouds.
OMG Sondra, I love that for your hubs, how funny. I remember the clouds so well! I had to lobby hard for lasers that year, but yes, clouds were the norm!
Ok but the ‘bombastic side-eye’ from Leah is giving sophisticated and unbothered in all the best ways. And Sharon’s hair is absolutely incredible!!
I also have naturally curly hair and there was so much hair brushing going on, which was not good. The confusing thing to me is my own mother also had curly hair so how did we not have that figured out?!
Curly hair is tough! I’m 39 with very curly hair and still bumbling through.
Awww, I wish I could reach through and hug all these kids. Especially Dan. 7th grade was the curl bangs up, curl bottom bangs down. My now teen son has a few hilarious ones – in Catholic School they took pictures twice a year as a fundraiser and it was HARD to prepare him. He’s got the kindergarten spaghetti stain from lunch on his shirt, the one where he took off his nice sweater to reveal a sport t-shirt, and the one where he was told: “Any pose you want,” which resulted in two thumbs up lol.