In the early 2000’s, I found a safe space online to explore my identity and express myself creatively through the way I looked. In online spaces such as MySpace and LiveJournal, subcultures like “Emo” and “Scene” were pervasive as both aesthetics and musical genres. These subcultures have a musical foundation with the majority of popular bands (made up of mostly straight, predominantly white men), writing songs about their at times, toxic relationships with women. As the subcultures grew, the main characters of these songs morphed from loving and kind women who the singers would seek the attention of, to femme fatals who the singer would lyrically attack in retaliation for ignoring them. The women in these subcultures who brought the fashion and aesthetic of the songs to life became known as 'Scene Queens.' The fans of these bands and those who spent time at their shows became known as ‘Scene Kids.’ Growing up on the internet had a lasting impact on my identity and my gender performance. The style of the ‘Scene Kids’ was based around the concept of androgyny. It took items that were considered to be feminine; skinny jeans, tiaras, eyeliner, and used them to challenge the culture and idea of gender performance at that time. Scene kids styles ranged from androgynous to hyper fem and were a direct rebellion against the popular or socially acceptable styles at the time. I grew up in the Emo and Scene subcultures where a femme form of androgyny was expected and praised by everyone in the scene. However, as an adult, any form of expression that was accepted in those subcultures is in stark contrast to what is expected in a standard workplace. As an adult feeling lost and like I was constantly wearing a costume of everyone else’s expectations, I finally decided to go back to a time in my own life when I didn’t care what others thought about what I wore or how I dressed. Rebelling against the stereotype of what a teacher is supposed to dress like or look like helped me to regain the sense of belonging I had growing up on MySpace and LiveJournal. This simple act of rebellion and reclaiming of the androgynous style of Scene Kid gender performance suddenly became my key to happiness. Through this series of paintings, I explore reclaiming my identity and healing my inner self by regaining the confidence to be me, unadulterated. Poses from my youth are recreated, including paintings of hairstyles I wanted as a kid and finally had the confidence to have as an adult. Many of these paintings have elements of glitched photo files and early 2000’s style photo collage elements as if these images have slowly corroded over time and should have been deleted when MySpace faded away. These images are fighting to exist in this current time without remorse and without fear of judgment and is a challenge to those who believe that dressing professionally is a requirement of growing up.