Leopards

It started with this: "Why doesn't she just get some trendier glasses?"
And ended with this: "What is the equivalent of leopard print tights for an actual male leopard?"

The girl's sister is beautiful, but the younger one just didn't seem to get anything but her mother's less fortunate genes. She wore silver-framed, oval glasses that were reminiscent of a first pair in third grade. Only, this girl was twelve or thirteen and about five-foot-seven. Her sister was the type to make anyone jealous, and, oddly, had no attitude about her beauty.

So, I wondered, "Why doesn't she just get some trendier glasses?" That's a pretty tumultuous time in the life of a woman, and conforming is close to a life necessity. At least that's what I considered, until I followed my bizarre train of thought, and realized that there are a lot of middle and high schoolers who intentionally don't dress the part. They do their best not to conform (and, I'd argue, conform all the same. Alas..) So, I wondered, are we the only species who make a conscious effort to look different from each other, to be different from each other on a fundamental level. Do other species have vast number of rogues? Isn't it evolutionarily advantageous to conform, to thus be liked and thus be able to procreate?

What I mean is this: Aren't all those hipsters (for instance, the ones that I particularly hate in Seattle who wear glasses with no lenses and leopard print tights and cardigans) just intentionally sabotaging themselves. Have we so surpassed our carrying capacity that ostracizing ourselves like this is actually better in the grand scheme of the world?

Truly, though, I guess hipsters really are just as conforming as the preppy-pretty-popular crowd. But really. I mean really, who's going to procreate with a guy in leopard print tights?

And: "What is the equivalent of leopard print tights for an actual male leopard?" Do they go rogue, too? Is that good for their species.

More to the point: Why not just get the girl some cool glasses so the other kids at school stop making fun of her?