They say you learn something new everyday. Today I learned that I am NOT a Flower Child. Always thought I was. I thought a Flower Child was the child of a Hippie. Turns out, a Flower Child IS a Hippie, which makes me a Flower Child, Child. A Flower Child: “(in the 1960’s and 1970’s) is a young person, especially a hippie, rejecting conventional society and advocating love, peace, and simple, idealistic values”. According to Google. Sounds about right. So, that makes me a child of two Flower Children, because if you know my parents, they fit that description to a T.

You’re probably wondering where I’m going with all of this. Well, it comes down to how I was raised and how my parents influenced my childhood. I know I’m lucky. I had an awesome childhood. Two, loving parents who reminded me I was loved every second they could. There was A LOT of singing, dancing and being outdoors as much as possible. My father was always obsessed with his garden and chopping wood to heat our home. My mom loved to be free, listen to music and had killer fashion sense.

Growing up, my parents always encouraged me to express myself any way I liked (within reason, of course). If I wanted to cut my hair short and wear only orange clothes, they were cool with it. If I wanted to decorate my bicycle with artificial flowers and wear my dad’s bell bottoms, okay. They even let us paint our rooms and dye our hair and experiment with makeup and fashion. So, naturally I had a lot of “looks”. One thing about those looks was that they were always different than everyone else.

When all my friends were wearing GAP and Abercrombie in High School, I was saving my money for fabric to create my own looks. And I always went back to my Flower Child, Child roots. It’s called BOHO or Bohemian, and it’s been around since the 60’s. Light airy fabrics, flowy silhouettes, natural tones, floral prints and peace signs.

Now, I like to combine my BOHO pieces with neutral pieces to create a more, “adult” look. Like pairing these incredible lace ruffle flares from AKIRA, with a silk tunic from H&M and topping it with my favorite denim jacket from a million years ago. Placed under cherry blossoms, and my Flower Child, Child comes alive. I’ll definitely be wearing these pants a lot this spring. To keep them functional, I paired them with my Puma High Tops from DSW and a gold chain bandana necklace from Amazon.