let's do some shopping

Last week we went to the Nittany Mall to visit some of the store for girls. I felt a little creepy going to girls' stores without a little girl, but it was part of our class, so we ventured into these stores. The first one was Gap Kids, and here all the clothes were beautiful and classy. I loved the little shirts with glittery animals, layered under little cardigans and paired up with little tutus. A lot of the clothes there seemed to be for little adults, and they were cute, but naturally, they were expensive. 

We then moved on to Claire's which was one of my favorite stores when I was a teenager. So many memories came back, the sales, the many bracelets and necklaces I bought (especially those "Best Friends" ones). The right side of the store seemed to be geared towards tweens. The items were more colorful and the fashion was more about boybands and Hello Kitty. The other side of the store had more "sophisticated" jewelry and accessories, so they seemed to be targeting older teenagers. 

The next store we went to was Justice. I had never been to this store since there isn't one in Puerto Rico. The general look of the store is too many bright colors and a lot of sequins, and clothes that don't look as sophisticated as the ones at Gap Kids. But I guess they are also fun, and for young girls, it's good to have clothes that are fun, and more importantly, that are not sexy. In this store there were clothes with boybands and male singers as well (yes, I'm talking about One Direction and Justin Bieber). 

These stores are typical stores for girls, showcasing their fashion sense with bright colors and weird trends (like the hipster mustache that we found in everything, even Hello Kitty).
These stores are very different from an online store I found online called Toward the Stars. 

According to the site description, TtS has a mission of providing "a safe haven from the commercialisation and sexualisation of girlhood, from the toxic gender stereotypes that dominate the marketing, media, and products targeted to children and young adults". In this store there are shirts for girls that read "I <3 Math", dresses with dinosaurs, shirts with robots, pirate dolls, and other items decorated with things not usually associated to girls. I really like this online store because it provides girls with other fashion options that the usual stores don't necessarily provide.