A Societal Rant

Middle school.  A time of pressure, both psychosocial and emotional.  To survive this precursor to high school--or as I like to call it, eternal damnation--one must dress, act, and appear like everyone else.  During my time in purgatory, one was judged by the clothes on their back.  It was only "cool" to wear brand names, these being Hollister and Abercrombie and American Eagle and whichever others styled a piece of cloth and put a label on it.  It is thanks to these stores that I have been inspired to rant.

Shopping at Hollister was a traumatic experience for my middle school self.  I would make sure that I looked "acceptable" on their standards, and even then I never felt good enough to be shopping there.  Maybe it was due to the super model looks of the employees, or perhaps because of the array of shirtless men posted to the walls.  Either way,  I felt so, absolutely self-conscious in these stores.  And to top it all off, the crappy tees and poorly fashioned sandals were ridiculously overpriced.  Why then, did I continue to put myself through the anxiety of shopping at said store?  It was simple.  I did it so that I could fit in.

This being said, I was not surprised to find that Abercrombie and Hollister truly are as superficial as they seem to be.  Their vision of the "all-American" girl is entirely skewed.  It is unfortunate that these are the stores that young girls are so attracted to.  I wish that I could go to all of the girls like myself, those that are stuck in a time of self-loathing, and help them to realize the unimportance brig "cool."

My advice to you?  Shop at Walmart for God sake.  Seriously, Walmart is awesome.