Angela Pham // Photographer, Billy Farrell Agency

Angela's selections 1. Gilly Hicks underwear 2. Alexis Holiday 2013 3. Hourglass Opaque Rouge Liquid lipstick 4. Nars bronzer 5. Stila Stay All Day liquid eyeliner 6. The Perfect Panna Cotta recipe

In high school, my search for an identity is best encapsulated through my myriad of changing hairstyles. I experimented with angular bangs, neon colors, and finally settled in senior year for the most audacious look of all: a faux hawk. I had hair that length-ed down my whole back, so essentially the whole top of my head had been mowed.

I admittedly gleaned this look off of Tila Tequila, as this was 2006, and Ms Tequila reigned Myspace, but I still felt wildly individualistic. Now people could look at me and just automatically perceive I was "alternative" and maybe even perhaps "did drugs/drank" (although I certainly did not), and that was the most important thing, what other people thought. I went to a magnet high school with lots of studious asians aiming for Harvard, and I wanted every facet of my being to scream "I'M NOT LIKE YOU!", even though, like them, I religiously obsessed about my GPA and spent weekends studying for my SATs.

The realities of having a mohawk were really prosaic. I had to devise different ways to keep my hair erect: hair glue, super strong hair spray, waxes. At 16, I was working at a pizza shop, making the pizzas, but I was always touching my mohawk to ensure its structural integrity, and that was definitely unappetizing for patrons to witness. By the time college began and I moved to New York, I had given up on being drastic and let my hair grow out. I haven't changed my hairstyle ever since then and am pretty content with looking boring. - @phamgela