How to be Smarter: Date boys that appreciate your sense of humor. What you think is funny is such an entrenched part of your personality, that if you and your boyfriend can’t agree on what jokes are funny, what can you agree on?

How to be Prettier: If I ever get my very own office to write in all day long, I want to hang this over my desk.

How to be (less) Awkward: Cards don’t need to be sent only on birthdays. They have the “Thinking of You” and “Have a Nice Day” e-cards for a reason–to send to friends and moms and boyfriends when there is no reason.

How to be Smarter: Try to live your life as a baseline friendly person, and for a step up, work on being personable.

How to be Prettier: Don’t confuse wearing all black with automatically being stylish. You can wear all black and be stylish–or you can be wearing all black and just be matching.

How to be (less) Awkward: Check Out My Bowlcut.

How to be Smarter: For an interview, always bring a nice pen in your bag to take notes with. Writing with a nicer pen than a Bic conveys a subtle nonverbal clue of class.

How to be Prettier: Such a unique necklace — the entire site has great jewelry for extremely inexpensive prices.

How to be (less) Awkward: Very hilarious take on yogurt, and the advertising world in general.

P.S. Check out my guest post today on The Wedding Belle!

How to be Smarter: Go on family vacations when they are offered to you. Not only will you bond with your family, they are usually free, and they won’t be offered to you free of charge forever.

How to be Prettier: Everyone needs a romper for spring/summer this year.

How to be (less) Awkward: Find a quiet place on campus to talk when you need privacy and to escape your dorm room–either a little corner in the auditorium or a nook in the hallway of your building. It’s important to know you have place to talk privately with your friends and family who are not around.

How to be Smarter: When you intially send someone an email, address them by the most formal way you can. “Prof. Thomas” for your teacher; “Elizabeth” for your RA; “Mrs. Leigh” for your friend’s mother. After they respond, you can address them by the way they sign their email, i.e. “Prof.” for your teacher; “Liz” for your RA, “Cheri” for your friend’s mother.

How to be Prettier: Use a shade lighter than one’s skin tone to cover an inverted scar with. This creates the appearance of a smooth surface. Using a shade darker than natural skintone on a raised scar will have the same effect (source).

How to be (less) Awkward: Don’t watch movies that scare you. It is not childish to say you don’t want to watch something– but it is childish to feel peer-pressured to watch something you don’t want to.

PS: Please check out my interview today on Everyday to Runway!

How to be Smarter: Every relationship deserves a dignified end. If you break up with someone over text messaging, you didn’t deserve to have a significant other in the first place.

How to be Prettier: I’m not really a baker, but if I was to start, this cooking set would be the first thing I would get.

How to be (less) Awkward: It can be tricky when there is a set of multiple doors in a row, and you are traveling behind someone and they are holding each door open. You can play this two ways: one, thank them each time as you go through a door, and, by the last door, are giggling with them at the silliness; or two, thank them loudly the first time and then catch their eye and smile at them for each subsequent door. And finally, a way I’m not sure I’d always endorse, cause it can be tricky: don’t thank for the beginning doors, but, at the last door, announce, giggling, “thank you for being my doormen!” And if they like the joke and respond, offer to tip them in a kidding sort of way. This is tricky though; not recommended for everyone.

PS: Please check out my guest post today on Girl Goes East.

How to be Smarter: A hilarious, delicious-looking cooking blog, AEPie.

How to be Prettier: Collarless jackets and blazers will be big this spring; they lend a more polished feel to outfits without a stuffy collar around your neck.

How to be (less) Awkward: When your friends leave your apartment, or you all scatter after being out, be sure to text them with the “Home ok?” text, and wait for a response. It is both a way to both confirm safety, and to show you care.

How to be Smarter: Always wear your heaviest clothes and shoes onto the plane (rain boots, winter coat) so you have more room in your suitcase and do not have a heavy baggage fee.

How to be Prettier: A great wallet/clutch in blue, and a similar version in green (this is the one I have).

How to be (less) Awkward: The people that tend to be the most insecure about their money are those that have too much or too little.

How to be Smarter: When you bring clothes of different sizes into the dressing room, try on the big sizes first. If they fit, great, be done with it. Do not try on the smaller sizes first, because you might feel sad if you have to take them off and go up a size.

How to be Prettier: Lace is big this spring, especially in pale pink and white colored dresses, and as embellishments on shoes and leggings.

How to be (less) Awkward: When someone gives you a boardgame that is wrapped in plastic, unwrap it before you put it away on the game shelf. That way, when they come over and want to play with you 3 months later, you do not have to feel awkward unwrapping it in front of them, showing them you never used their gift.

How to be Smarter: You’re dating the person you’re dating because there is something special about them that is unlike others. Other people will notice this quality in them too, and may flirt or try to grab their attention away from you. Do not worry. When other girls flirt with your boy, it should make you happy you did such a good job choosing such a great  boyfriend. Jealousy is for people that are insecure, which you are not.

How to be Prettier: Embellished shoulders are big this spring. Any extra detailing on the shoulders of a dress or top–lace, cutouts, light sequins is big.

How to be (less) Awkward: After someone buys you dinner, you thank them twice: once at the table and once at the end of the night when you part ways to go home.

How to be Smarter: Make your decisions carefully, and then, once you have chosen, stop comparing and appreciate why you made that choice in the first place. If you decide to go to a college with a beautiful campus over a city school, make sure to take time to look at the pretty setting each day as you walk to class and don’t be sad that it’s a two hour ride to the airport. If you decide to date a boy that treats you like gold but is not classically handsome, appreciate the way he makes you feel loved and don’t wish he could lose ten pounds. If you decide to work at a company that pays less than others, but allows you incredible responsibility, appreciate being trusted to make decisions and do not wish you had more money for vacations.

How to be Prettier: They are running a special, so I am going to stock up on three of these, and pair them with leggings and low boots to transition into early spring; and move to pairing them with white shorts and low Converse sneakers on the weekends.

How to be (less) Awkward: A news site that is all happy.

How to be Smarter: If you are like me, you live with your planner attached to your hip. I have stopped putting just things I have to do for other people, i.e. work projects, homework, etc., and added things that I should be doing for me. Every day I have “drink five glasses of water” as a task to-do in my planner, along with “apply sunscreen,” and “20 minutes of walking” (what can I say, I am not a runner). Since I am way too much of a perfectionist to delete tasks until they are done, these things always get done without much thinking on my part–I treat it as just another task on the to-do list.

How to be Prettier: Bows are big this spring, especially on jewelry.

How to be (less) Awkward: Blaming people is a bad habit. Sometimes some things are just accidents, sometimes some people just make mistakes, and sometimes some feelings just change. Blaming someone–yourself included–is a waste of time. It happened, you learned something, let’s all move on resentment-free.

How to be Smarter: Take your passion and run with it–even if it is only for a day. Dreams and passions don’t need to last forever to be important or valid or interesting. Today, I love cupcakes. The whole blog is dedicated to them today. Will I love them as much when the weather is hot and sticky and all I want is an iced tea? Probably not. But that doesn’t mean I can’t celebrate them today.

How to be Prettier: Buy this set of four lip glosses and distribute three of them to your best buds–keeping one for yourself! And this cheeky necklace would be an interesting, fun addition to a otherwise simple outfit.

How to be (less) Awkward: I think it’s the spring mood I’m in, but this adorable cupcake blog–which features not just actual cupcakes, but cupcake sculptures, paintings, and more, all on a spring-time pink background, is precious.

How to be Smarter: You must give your dreams a combination of time, and a nudge in the right direction, in order for them to happen.

How to be Prettier: A great spring eyelet dress–you can get it in black to wear to work with a cardigan over it, or wear it in yellow with gold flats for a Thursday night out.

How to be (less) Awkward: The other day when I was rushing out the door leaving for a trip, I was running around like a madmen when my boyfriend said “Stop panicking and looting your cubby!” In my haste to get out the door, I had grabbed, without realizing, just about everything I could see from my junk cubby by the door–shoes, a sweatshirt, old makeup, I think there was even a bagel thrown in there. Somtimes when people are in a hurry, they grab whatever they can see and make a break for it. The same is true when they feel that that they must flee situations—transfer colleges, transfer jobs, transfer cities. Stop. Breathe. Slow down. You don’t need to loot your junk cubby and flee–you can sit down, have a civilized breakfast, clear your head, and then leave. Take your time, whether rushing out the door or rushing out of a situation, to think it over and make more rational choices.

How to be Smarter: You cannot have two number one priorities. Either decide which one is more important, or schedule the spacing of your life differently so they can be both be number one at separate times.

How to be Prettier: Lauren Conrad’s Kohl’s collection is way more awesome then I expected. I already ordered this white sparkly sheath dress.

How to be (less) Awkward: Some people look trendy in a sequined blazer; most people look like magicians.

How to be Smarter: The best site I’ve seen for online appointment booking and deals for spas and salons, customizable to your city.

How to be Prettier: I find that most people don’t wear heels everyday–it is just not practical. But most people tend to have lots more pairs of going out shoes than everyday shoes, so they have 6 choices of shoes to wear on a Saturday night but wear the same pair of flats everyday. Spend your money where it makes sense–on the everyday shoes you wear, not the ones that, while pretty, can only be worn once or twice a month.

How to be (less) Awkward: People that say things that are mean or have a biting tone tend to be because of their insecurities, rather than your failures. Instead of getting defensive, just say “ok,” and be happy that you wouldn’t trade your problems for theirs.

How to be Smarter: I’m always looking for ways to sneak more water into my diet. I like this tip from this site (which lists 19 more ways to sneak water into your diet): “Add drinking two glasses of water to your daily skincare regimen. Drink, cleanse, moisturize, etc., then drink again.”

How to be Prettier: This is the dress I see myself wearing on a third date in the middle of May, or at a friend’s birthday cookout on the patio in the middle of September. It says: I am not fussy, but I am detailed, understated glamorous.

How to be (less) Awkward: If you use up the end of the toilet paper roll, you replace it. You’re an adult. Handle it.

How to be Smarter: You can’t pick your family. It’s what you are born into, and while you can change your interaction with your family as you grow older, for the most part, they are yours and will always be a part of your life. You can pick your friends though–total control there. Hence, it is more telling of someone’s character and personality to look at who they chose to hang around with, rather then who they were born to.

How to be Prettier: Beautiful pictures, beautiful girl, beautiful blog.

How to be (less) Awkward: Try not to let your nervousness about something–dogs, the poor job market, the murder rate in your city–rub off onto other people. Getting on the plane while announcing flight fatality rates never makes you very popular, and, chances are, other people are mildly nervous about the same thing , have already thought about it, and worked through it with themselves.