Stepford Girls & Queen Bees
I was sitting outside at a cafe enjoying lunch with my sons the other day. A gaggle of middle school girls plopped down next to us. All nine girls were dressed exactly alike: Nike running shorts in an assortment of colors, Ugg boots, black North Face fleece jackets. I can tell you that I never owned a pair of $200 boots when I was 12. Heck, I'm 41 and still don't own boots that cost that much, which incidentally is as much as the rent in my first apartment (granted, it was a crappy apartment, and I shared it...but still). All the girls reminded me of the pint size versions of their Stepford Moms.
Even my 6-year old son remarked on their appearance. He looked at them quizzically, then looked around at the other patrons, and asked me why they were dressed alike. My 4-year old asked if it was some sort of costume since it was the day before Halloween. We all wondered why the heck they were wearing fuzzy woolly boots with running shorts. I was wondering what's happened to this world in which 12-year old girls are carrying LouisVuitton bags and sporting iPhones.
I remember being 12. I clearly recall calling my friend Heather the night before school to coordinate our outfits, she in her red wide whale cords, me in the green ones, both of us sporting a grosgrain ribbon whale belt. Heather and I thought we looked cute and all, but we weren't running around in a crowd of girls who also looked just like us. For us, dressing alike was an outward symbol of our friendship. We didn't travel in a Noah-esque twosome; we hardly even had any classes together. We just liked knowing that somewhere down the hall from Mrs. Craig's English class was our girlfriend, the one who boosted us onto a pedestal and defended us should we teeter off. We didn't dress alike everyday, mind you. Heather and I certainly embraced our differences. She confidently wore the mantel of cool popular girl while I was happy in her shadow as her slightly geeky sidekick. In hindsight, we were actually as comfortable as we could have been considering that vulnerable, tender, hormonal age.
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