DR. WALLACE: As a 16-year-old girl, I like to be creative whenever I get the chance. My friends and I take great pride in mixing accessories with our clothes, wearing shoes that don't match and of course, we love to be expressive with our socks.

However, lately I found a new way to be creative, as I like to make up my own words that are definitely not in the dictionary. I'll give you a couple of quick examples. My best girlfriend recently found out that what she thought was her steady boyfriend was also dating another girl, even though he had told my friend they were exclusive. I was talking to another friend and I said that he "trangled" her! I made up the word because she found herself in a love triangle all of a sudden, and that ended up strangling the relationship.

Another word I use a lot is "clostume" and I say it when I see mainly guys trying to dress up without doing it right and they look ridiculous! In my mind, they're wearing a "clown costume" but I don't want to say the word clown out loud because it can sound demeaning if I'm overheard by someone who doesn't know me. All my girlfriends know what I'm talking about if I say look at the "clostume" on that one!

My older brother overheard me using my new vocabulary and talked down to my girlfriend and me. He called us stupid and immature, probably because he's 18 and he thinks he's such an adult these days. Do you think we are being stupid and immature, or do you buy into our creativity? — We Love Our New Vocabulary, via email

WE LOVE OUR NEW VOCABULARY: I for one, give you credit for your creativity and as long as there have been teenagers, there has been slang, new vocabulary words and new meanings for old words.

Your "super mature" older brother likely feels left out, so he's perhaps lashing back at you in an immature way himself, in my humble opinion.

SHOULD I GIVE MY FATHER HIS RIGHTFUL CREDIT?

DR. WALLACE: I am a 15-year-old boy and I take my shoes very seriously! I have a paper route, I help some of the older guys in the neighborhood paint houses on the weekends. I do whatever I can to earn some new money and a portion of that cash I use to buy new shoes.

The other day, I went to school with a new pair of shoes on that didn't have any shoelaces. They did actually come with shoelaces, but I took them out and made sure they were a half size smaller than I normally wear so they would stay tight on my feet. My father noticed them when I was leaving for school that day and told me to put some shoelaces into those shoes because they looked ridiculous!

I asked him if we could compromise because I was late for the bus and I said if you let me wear them like this today, I'll lace them before I wear them the next time. Well, over that weekend, I was thinking about maybe buying some different colored shoelaces and putting them into my shoes so that I could be styling and also meet my father's requirement.

I was doing some painting with one of the guys and in the garage of the house that we were painting were some multicolored wires that were used for electrical purposes. The wires were of various bright colors and I noticed that they were small enough that they could fit into the eyelets of my shoes.

I asked the homeowner if I could take a little piece of a couple of wires because I wanted to use them to "style up" my shoes by putting them into the eyelets. The homeowner had wire cutters and he sat with me and measured them out and clipped me off four different colors and gave me two lengths of each color so that I could mix and match and have options. The homeowner really liked the painting job we were doing and he's always been very friendly with me, telling me he thinks it's great that a young guy is working to earn his own money.

So the next time I tried to wear those shoes and go to school my father noticed them as I had a red and yellow electrical wire as shoelaces, one color on each foot. My father laughed and told me I looked ridiculous, but he said it was ok as I at least had them laced up with something.

Well, my shoes were a huge hit at school, as all the guys and even many of the girls loved my shoes with the "electrical" shoelaces in two colors. Now I'm getting compliments every day. I feel like I should tell my father that he created a new trend and thank him for it, but I don't want to tick him off and make him mad. Do you think I should say anything at all to my father, or just keep quiet and be glad that I can wear the shoes with these electrical shoelaces? — My Shoes and Laces Rock, via email

MY SHOES AND LACES ROCK: As long as you pick the right time to approach your father, I think a compliment to him would be in order, as I highly believe you will make him smile and maybe even laugh.

You can tell your father that he gets credit for the new trend because, had he not told you that you needed to lace up your shoes, you never would have come up with the idea to use the colorful electrical wires. Sometimes new trends and great ideas are born out of very unusual circumstances and your story certainly qualifies for that.

Dr. Robert Wallace welcomes questions from readers. Although he is unable to reply to all of them individually, he will answer as many as possible in this column. Email him at [email protected]. To find out more about Dr. Robert Wallace and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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