Friday, November 18, 2011

Don't Wanna Hear About Susan

We had a visiting artist at school - actually a super cool speech and theater coach who gave a master class to the eighth graders - and at the end of the day, I noticed that she was staring at me a lot.

"I'm so sorry," she said.  "It's just that you look exactly like my girlfriend, Laura.  I've, like, GOT to call her and tell her I met her twin!"

"Funny!" I said, smiling.

But, the truth is, I was not at all surprised by this revelation. This actually happens to me all the time.  At least once a month, someone tells me I "look exactly like" someone else they know - their tennis instructor, their cousin, their brother's girlfriend.  At every job I've had, I've regularly been mistaken for at least one other colleague.

Even when I'm just standing next to someone, people will often say I look like that person.  Isn't that odd?  What is it about me that looks like so many other people?



An upside to this phenomenon is that sometimes people say I look like a famous person whom I admire.  Alexis Bledel used to be the most common.  Before her was Alicia Silverstone and/or Jennifer Garner.  Most recently, it's been Leslie Mann, a comparison I don't understand at all.  When pressed, people say it's her voice and/or mannerisms that make her look like me.

Whatever.  It's not a rose or a thorn, really, but it happened yesterday.  It happens all the time.






5 comments:

Indiana Rock on a California Roll said...

This is so weird! I frequently deal with this issue, also! I always used to want to say, No, I look like a woman with short, curly brown hair and glasses. But then once I went to a grad party and we were all sitting in a circle of lawn chairs and the woman across from me- short, curly brown hair and glasses- looked so much like me that I kept thinking there was a mirror I wasn't aware of. So, now I generally agree with them: Yeah, a lot of people look like me.

mm said...

I'm guessing it's a rose.

LH said...

I have kind of the opposite situation. People who I've spent considerable time with don't recognize me as me. Happened yesterday on the bus.

jdoc said...

Guess what! At book club last night Katie told me that she is the public Katie who recognized you at a reading and became the subject of a blog post. Wow! Then Katie and Julie and I went on about how much we like your blog. This conversation was the rose of my day!

Gina Marie said...

Huh. Know what's weird? I can see you looking like all the people you mentioned, most especially Leslie Mann. And I agree, it's Leslie Mann's voice and mannerisms and general badassery that makes you resemble her (or her resemble you... if you prefer).