>"Who here is ready to have some FUN?!" The pink girl in her clown costume and makeup honks her red nose.
>The small crowd of 5-7 year olds heartily cheer her on while the 8-10 year olds mixed in with them sort of roll their eyes.
>But it wasn't long before she won everyone over with nothing more than handkerchiefs, cloaks, balloons, and a personality that could repair anyone's bad day.
>Not just the kids, but all of their parents too, making almost silent chuckling fits spread across the line of grown-ups in the back like wildfire before it had even been 20 minutes into this birthday party performance.
>Even that one cynical father missing the game over this had to cover his smile as the stack of cards the clown girl balanced on her head started to fall until she clumsily tried to stop the cards from flying everywhere, only making the "mess" worse before accidentally grabbing the same card one of the kids named.
>This girl is unstoppable, soon doing backflips in place and balancing herself on a unicycle like she only gets more energetic as the minutes go on.
>The parents better be paying her enough for this type of performance to fund her college years with the way she's starting to do acrobatics here.
>That backdrop of the bright blue sky behind her only makes her silhouette sharper as she drops back down to her feet, intentionally failing to stick he landing and having the little table she set up come crashing down upon her impact.
>And the same card from before lands right in her lap, followed by an applause from he audience.
>The girl's bright wide smile alone expresses gratitude her audience before her lips and tongue even have time to form the words "thank you".
>Her pink skin and deeper pink hair shone in the afternoon sunlight as she waved, with only her face and multi-colored clothes covering her pinkness in the clown getup she has on.
>The kids cheer at her while the parents clap in fascination at her, marveling at the sight to see she is.
>Her tone and inflections almost feel fine tuned to uplift your mood, every word dangling off the edge of a firework sent off by her bright personality.
>This girl only laughs from falling down on purpose, just to get back up and have fun making a fool out of herself with a big smile beaming through that clown makeup.



>She's an acrobat that doesn't have to worry about doing everything right until making sure the card landing in her hand is the same one that was named, or the bowling pin lands in her poofy hair after her juggling goes awry for the third time today.
>And even if she doesn't do it all correctly at that level, it doesn't matter, because most clowns are supposed to be silly and get their stunts wrong in the most spectacular fails anyway.
>Nothing has felt more fool-proof to this girl.
>Fool proof and unapologetically fun.
>But that doesn't stop her from absolutely nailing her musical number segment of her performance.
>The pink girl belts out those notes as though she were a professional singer and not a teenage girl performing at a birthday party in a clown suit.
>The electrifying energy she carries herself with matches that of the Saturday cartoons you watch, as you sit there mesmerized by this girl's raw talent.
>It's easy to tell she just loves to sing and dance, pouring every ounce of her energy into this musical number with a passion that often brings the beholder to tears through how much they love doing what they do.
>It's like incorporating the music number did something to her capacity to even make any mistakes; every backflip is sharp and calculated, every note sung is right on the nose.
>The parents are convinced that this girl is claiming this entire type of vibe all for herself to hold ownership over it from here on out.
>She's proud of her ridiculous getup making her look so silly while she sings to the heavens about how special you are and how you can do anything, making sure to lock eyes with you and acknowledging you as the birthday boy.
>This pink girl makes the entire world feel like not your oyster but everything great about the entire ocean all at once.
>You feel like you can do anything you want with your life, especially from the point of view of a 10 year old who loves to be talked up into a big smile and a confident stride.
>Everything about this vibe carried you away without you even feeling ashamed to clap like a total idiot in front of all your friends who were cheering her on too.
>This clown girl is just as bright in appearance as she sounds in her gleeful voice.
>And still...
>You could have sworn you saw that girl before.



>There you were, enjoying your 10th birthday party like the little pirate knight you saw yourself as when your parents introduced the party clown to everyone.
>The one kid who had a fear of clowns had to be sent home, but you yourself simply looked on in confusion as her voice sounded a little familiar.
>But you weren't sure from where; your brain was mostly just set on cartoons and video games at the time, so the origin of this girl escaped you.
>Whoever she was, she had insistently volunteered to perform at your birthday party, and boy did she have a blast entertaining you and all of your friends who were still there.
>She blew up and tied long balloons into animal shapes, did card tricks, told jokes, pulled ropes made out of handkerchiefs out of her pockets, made plastic cups disappear behind a tarp, then reappear upside down on the table with a ball under them, things like that.
>All the while laughing and honking her inflatable horn-nose, being as boisterous and bubbly as anyone could be.
>You've always seen men dress up and perform as clowns, so it really took you by surprise to see a teenage girl do it.
>There was something about her very demeanor, the sound of her cheerful high-pitched voice combined with the clown getup, the seemingly endless energy she had, all of it... captured you.
>You remember a specific thing she said too.
>"I'm so excited to see you again, Nonny!" She spoke as though you two had met before, which only played into the notion that she did seem familiar somehow.
>There was something funny about a girl dressing up in clown makeup and acting clumsy and silly on purpose.
>Something that boasted: "I'm very carefree, you and I can really have a lot of fun together."
>---
>At least that's how you're looking at it now.
>Back when you turned 10, you just felt confused and admittedly awestruck by a teenage girl who was older than you dressed up as a clown.
>You would usually see clowns being hired to perform at your birthday party as an insult to how cool and tough you made yourself out to be, like your parents were babying you about it.
>But now you're looking back on Pinkie The Clown fondly, like her feminine charm being added to the face paint and dyed hair and all that made it that much more appealing.
>They don't feel like they should go together so well... but they do.



>You had found yourself thinking about her often, but couldn't find the same appeal from guys dressed as clowns.
>It wasn't until you started watching Harley Quinn in the Batman cartoons and things like that did something really start to click.
>It hadn't been until you were getting older and watching certain horror movies featuring women in heavy facepaint that was more than just standard makeup did something make you feel a certain type of way.
>Those moments in time.
>It wasn't until those moments did did you finally realize the awakening that had happened on your 10th birthday.
>The seed that was planted sprouted into something amazing stirring within you very subtly, every time you saw a woman or girl in clown makeup.
>Like the very silly and unserious nature of the theme and getup erases all of the propriety and reservations you've learned to be careful about when talking about girls.
>Overstretches its reach outside of the boundaries that now became meaningless, especially in the makeup.
>Leaving behind but a girl who just loves to have fun and make you happy in the most nonsensical ways if she had to.
>It goes against logic in such a fun and reassuring way, almost liberating for you.
>Who's going to get mad about being called silly or nonsensical if that's literally what they're doing on purpose?
>There's something... really nice about clown girls...
>Maybe it's their feminine charm combined with an exaggerated demeanor intended to brighten your day, you're not sure.
>This draws you in like a leaf floating into a whirlpool.
>Clown girls make you feel funny in a way that transcends the pun.
>Clown girls have a peculiarly attractive quality to them that's more rare than a snowman in Florida.
>The exaggerated personality's a huge part of what makes them so fun.
>All of these things buzz around in your head as you yourself now get ready to enter high school, wondering if you'll ever see that girl again.