Middle school - home to preteens with poor fashion sense and braces. Here are some cringe-worthy reminders of the wonder years, the peak of awkwardness (hopefully this was your peak), middle school.

1. The "poof"

I couldn't refrain from kicking this off with the hairstyle of middle school.

Whether you took a more subtle approach:

or just went for it:

the poof was the way to go, always.

2. Week-long relationships

Whether it lasted for two days or two months, chances are your sixth grade fling fizzled out pretty quickly. Chances are that your parents didn't even know about it and even you didn't know your "significant other" all that well (I will still never understand why that was considered normal).

3. The "uniform"

For girls, at least, this meant leggings, a North Face jacket and Uggs.

4. Picnik

A picture was just not worthy of being posted to Facebook until you had slapped a sepia or cross process filter on it, a few hearts and something along the lines of "BFFs 4ever!" stamped across it.

5. Locker decor was a major priority in life

If your locker was the most obnoxiously and unnecessarily decorated in your hallway, you were winning at life.

6. Photo Booth photo shoots

If you or anyone you knew owned a Macbook, you can bet you spent forever and a half on this any time you hung out with friends.

7. Awkward fashion

Remember when Aeropostale was a thing?

8. The "tween" dresses

You all know the ones I'm talking about. Those unflattering things that youngsters wear before they hit puberty and develop a sense of fashion.

9. Side bangs

These bad boys were in full effect for basically all middle school girls. All hail straighteners.

10. Growth spurts

Unfortunately, this mainly only happened to girls during these years.

11. "They won't accept this in high school"

The classic response from teachers any time someone slightly acted up in class.

Basically, middle school is just one long awkward phase. But hey, at least social media was hardly even a thing for us at that time so once you delete all those old Facebook photos, you're in the clear.