While I was a perfectly well-adjusted teenager, I desperately acted like I wasn't.
Anything to do with popular name brands was on my shit list, Nike and Abercrombie at the top.
(I also think this season's insanity regarding the new re-release of the 90's Air Jordan's sort of shows that I wasn't that far off in my hatred...).
Looking back I realize that my friends and I defined ourselves just as much by these brands as those who actually wore them. Maybe we thought we were the rebellious youth going to the beat of our own drums, but instead we wound up following a different drum, but someone else's drum just the same.
*sigh* The one part that's equally fun and disappointing about looking back from the lofty heights of your older years is how incredibly silly you were at that age. Now I understand that drive adults have to tell you about growing up, because hindsight even as little as a decade later is so much clearer than what you see with in the midst of your teenage angst.
I'm trying to keep my mouth shut around my nieces, who are at the tender ages of 9, 12 and 17. The 17 year old especially, since like many girls that age, she is having a difficult time figuring out who she is, who she wants to be, and how to deal with the hordes of other girls in the same boat that will gladly shove her off if it helps them figure it out first.
Great thing about the internet? Whenever you have to keep your mouth shut in real life, you can immediately go and blabber online and get it off your chest.
So my rant today is against Abercrombie and it's apparent cousin, Hollister.
Two stores that I still find myself glaring at whenever I happen to be in the mall.
And not even their shirtless, glistening and heavily muscled men with their chiseled abs could stop my glare at first.
Really? These poor men have to stand outside the storefront shirtless for hours on end, smiling their pretty-boy smiles at all the harried shoppers frantically dashing around the mall looking for little Susie's $50 t-shirt?
I came thisclose to snapping a picture of one fake-tanned boy and telling him, "You'll be on my blog come next week..." in an effort to shame him.
...but then I realized, Hey! He's just trying to earn money with the gifts god gave him, and the pain of having his chest waxed was probably punishment enough.
Plus the sheepish grin he gave me as I walked by, pointedly staring (NOT drooling! Okay, maybe a little drooling...) at him seemed to be an indication that he fully realized how ridiculous the job was.
Plus what's Christmas without a little cheer & forgiveness? And who knows, maybe next year while you bring your kids to visit Santa and sit on his lap, you can hunt down the shirtless prep boys and ask to sit on their laps and tell 'em what you want for Christmas.
Extra points if you get the boys to blush redder than their faux-lifeguard shorts with your wish list.
8 comments:
I see my granddaughters trying so hard to keep up with the latest fad, including Abercrombie, and want to pull out what little hair I have left! What really saddens me, is that they think it really matters. I've had no luck trying to convince the otherwise!
Meant convince "them" otherwise!
Of course not! Life is all about trying to figure out who you are at that age and it's not until later (if you're lucky) that you realize you are who you are and nothing will change it, not the "right" clothes, job, car, friends, etc.
Another great post. I was in the mall today and for a person who hates crowds and people it was a nightmare. I am so glad we don't have those pretty boys in our mall. We would just take them out back and shoot them I think. I was lucky enough to have parents who taught me that if I went with something less than brand name I could get MORE. I was convinced after that. Viva La REVOLUTION!
These boys had to stand in front of the store for REAL? I really must get to the malls once in a while.
I remember back in the day shopping there and being so surprised at what shit the merch was. Total shit that cost a shit-ton of money.
I'm too lazy to google, but some author once said, "youth is wasted on the young."
I'd never go back, but peering back there can cause some embarrassment that I was ever such an idiot.
Cal--I hear you there! Although I'm definitely not adverse to snapping up a name-brand label on the cheap, say on sale or at a thrift store!
Deborah--I think that's what makes me the most angry too, seeing a paper-thin tee shirt sold for $50!
It seems every six to eight years I look back at that younger me and think 'was I really that stupid'..and so it goes on and I still find myself looking back critically.
That's the great part about life, you always get an opportunity to mess up and then look back and laugh at it.
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