I have had to learn the hard way that no matter how perfect, every job has a downside.  When I first started my internship at KTLA, I loved every second of it.  My “work” consists of watching games (that I would watch anyway), deciding what goes into highlights, and writing scripts.  Additionally, I get to actually go to games, then go into the locker room to interview players after.  Tough life, I know.

It’s not all fun and games, though.  For those of you who know me (or have even seen me walking around campus), you know I am not girly at all.  I almost exclusively wear running shorts and cutoff T’s.  I consider wearing jeans and a T-shirt dressing up.  I never wear makeup or do my hair.  In fact, my hair is almost always in the messy bun that I slept in or a tight ponytail for a run.  My nails are never nicely manicured (come on, who has the time to deal with nails if you’re going to lift a few times a week?), and literally the only hair products I own are shampoo and conditioner.  Who would have guessed that working in sports would change all of that?

I was warned by an ESPN sideline reporter that many people have a misconception about the job- they think it’s glamorous and want just want to be on TV.  For me, “glamorous” is the last thing that comes to mind when I think of sideline reporting.  I think of being in the middle of all the action, standing right on the field as big plays are made inches from me, and being the first to ask coaches and players questions right after emotional games.  The idea of being on TV doesn’t excite me; I always thought of it as just part of the job.  But, the reality of it is, if I want to sideline report, I have to be on TV.  If I have to be on TV, I have to look the part.  Having never put much effort into how I look before, I’ve had to learn a lot of unexpected things in the last few months.

I get to go to a lot of professional sporting events for my internship.  Going to these events with a cameraman is a great opportunity for me to do standups, not only for practice, but also to gather footage for a reel.  Our sports anchor explained to me that in order for people to take me seriously in my reel, I have to look serious.  Apparently “looking serious” means getting very done up: hair, makeup, clothes, the whole nine yards.

Unfortunately for me, I’m a little behind most girls in the getting-done-up department considering I have never worried about how I look.  I can talk sports with the best of them, but you want me to straighten my hair and put on lipstick…?  Uh oh.

Fortunately for everyone else, that means I have many embarrassing stories about trying to look like a normal girl.  Here are a few of the “girl fails” I’ve had; feel free to make fun of me, my friends already have.

Learning how to get dressed all over again:
Getting dressed for games involves a difficult balance- I have to look nice, but not like I would to an interview.  I also need to have many different outfits so my reel looks like it’s been shot over a period of time.  Apparently it’s not that easy to concoct these outfits, despite having spent a lot of time on Google images.  For a while I had to make my friends come over and approve my outfits; I felt like a kindergartener trying to dress herself.  (You’re not allowed to wear brown and black together?  You have to do your hair a certain way depending on your neckline?  My pants have to be a certain length depending on the shoes I wear?  Who cares?)  Fortunately, after some guidance and a lot of frustrating shopping trips, I have graduated to being able to get dressed all by myself!

Scribbling all over my face:
I’ve made several trips to Sephora, frantically asking the staff what I’m supposed to do with my face and then failing to conceal my utter confusion as they magically smear a bunch of products on my face with complete ease.  One woman decided she would have me watch her do one of my eyes and let me do the other myself… I probably shouldn’t have gone right before work because one side of my face looked like a second grader had scribbled all over it.  I was almost late to the Lakers game that day because I had to run to my friend’s room and have her fix the mess I had made.

I need to own a blow dryer?
After getting a haircut I explained to my hairdresser that I needed to learn how to do hair.  She tried to walk me through different techniques, tools, products, and maneuvers I could use to style my hair various ways.  I was doing a good job of nodding along as if I knew what a “diffuser” and “hot rollers” were until I accidentally revealed I didn’t even own a blow dryer.  I will never forget the horrified look she gave me.  “You will probably need one of those,” she explained, as nicely a possible.

Curling my hair… sort of:
I was told that I needed several different “looks” for my reel, so I decided to curl my hair for a game.  My friend lent me her curling iron and explained that it was very easy to do.  I figured, if I can get through o-chem, I’m sure I can figure this out.  Turns out, curling hair is a lot harder than performing multi-step organic syntheses.  After spending about two hours trying to curl my hair, it looked no different than what I’d started with.  To make matters worse, I managed to burn my neck, leaving a mark that looked suspiciously (and embarrassingly) like a hickey.  Needless to say, I was incredibly frustrated.

I never thought this would happen, but all of a sudden it takes me a few hours to get ready for a basketball game.  (Two months ago I would just throw on a jersey and be out the door!)  All of a sudden I’m spending more money on makeup and hair products than game tickets and my closet contains more skirts than football jerseys.  What has my life come to??  I just have to keep reminding myself that there are worse sacrifices I could be making for my career.