be the "cool" aunt

Funny thing is that I do not fear that one day they might be tempted to try drugs… and I do hope that I am right about that.
But I had a fear that they would grow up to be too self-conscious about the way they look… especially that the older one would one day be tempted by her physical characteristics and turn into a shallow creature that would pay too much emphasis on her looks.
Everybody who saw her picture made comment that she could be a model. I didn’t even mention any of that to her or commented. Too afraid what she might say. And I did dread that one day she might utter something like “Why don’t I enter a beauty pageant?”
She’ll be 14 soon. However, she did came one day from the hairdresser and said she’s quite annoyed becuase people keep telling her to enter a beauty pageant and she thinks it’s stupid.
Oh, I was so relieved and proud of her.
That’s one down, one to go, :). The younger niece wrote the other day a homework saying that her older sister is her idol because she is so pretty. Well, she’s just 11. I hope that her expressed admiration of her sister is based not only in her sister’s looks but also in her personality.

And I’m so proud of myself because of it. I can’t think at this moment of any other title that would make me so proud.
Though I’m aware that it is a very fragile position considering that this title might not survive next birthday and, in all honesty, I really had to work hard for it. More than a decade of planning months ahead, getting inside information… And it was always worth it. Just to be able to see the sparkle in my nieces’ eyes, the overwhelming happiness when they unwrap the presents. Priceless. Grown-ups are more complicated. I can’t remember if I ever made any grown-up ecstatic by giving them some thoughtfully chosen gift.