I work in a store that sells children's clothing. There's nothing overly exciting about that and nothing unique. Tons of stores sell clothing for children. It's easy to tell the clothing apart without the overhanging signs of "Boys" and "Girls". All the girls clothing is full of glitter, pastels, neon pink, and cutesy sayings. The boys clothing is full of sport logos, dark blues and lime greens, and sayings about how awesome they are.
The first time I worked the boys and girls section of the store, I was disappointed by how cliche everything was. Nothing had changed about the clothing since I was a little girl. Sure, instead of Mulan and Cinderella the shirts are full of Anna and Elsa, but the general idea of all the clothing was the same. Girls were meant to be cute. Boys were meant to be athletic. Until we got a new brand.
I was folding t-shirts, grumbling to myself about how I didn't know where anything went now that we had arranged the store to make way for Cat&Jack. At first glance this new brand seemed the same as the ones we had before. Bright colors in the girl sections (with three different tutus) and sports and dark colors in the boy section. As I was folding I overheard a conversation between a mother and daughter.
Mother: "Why don't you get a shirt for the first day of school? Here's one with cats."
Daughter: "No. I want a cool shirt."
Mother: "Here's one with dinosaurs. They're cool."
Daughter: "No."
Mother: "Future President. I bet-"
Daughter: "Yes! Yes! Yes! That's me!"
Once they left, I moved to the table of graphic tees, surprised to find that there was indeed a shirt that said "Future President" and it wasn't there by mistake (I checked the location). There were also shirts that read "Never Underestimate Girl Power" and "Challenge Accepted". With one brand, my glittering girl's section had gone from cutesy overload to self-empowerment. Suddenly, I didn't care that Cat&Jack had me completely confused about where everything went in the section. I was just glad that their clothing was being made.
The best part of this new empowerment in clothing? The fashion line was designed by kids. So yes there's a dinosaur shirt in the girl's section and yes it has sequins, glitter, and bright colors, because some little girl went "I like dinosaurs and fashion." Empowering our girls did not come at making them choose between the things they like. They combined dinosaurs and glitter and neon pink with being president. They added tutus and frill to their outfits boasting girl power. And all of this is important, because looks matter in our society. What you wear matters. And if more little girls start wearing shirts about accepting challenges and being president then maybe more women will do these things. It might only be a shirt, but it could be the start to so much more.
