Food Fearless

Yesterday was the gap day between my last day of high school and my final exams, which meant that it was a day devoid of any formal plans, an occurrence otherwise known as the best kind of day ever. If you are a fan of technicality, and I suppose that I am, then I guess that it was also the first day of my summer vacation, since all academic obligations had been accounted for up until that point. I decided that this day was an excellent opportunity to heed my call of duty as a dedicated Seventeen reader by partaking in one of the activities mentioned on the magazine's "17 Things You Need to Do This Summer!" list. Number 15, engaging in a food-fearless taste test, seemed like something worth making a day out of. Then again, I may have just been excited by the fact that a magazine targeted towards women was actually encouraging me to eat something, a welcome foil to the usual dieting advice that ladymags are all too happy to push.

I had some errands to run in Philadelphia, so I ended up hopping a train to the city, where I figured I could be food-fearless more cheaply than I could here in the suburbs. Once you stray too far north of Philadelphia, the result tends to be such that financing a decent Indian meal requires a second mortgage on your home and the sale of an organ, infant, or both. Thus, its not often that I get to eat Indian food.

I arrived in the city around noon and pursued lunch at Reading Terminal Market, a public marketplace in center city Philadelphia that falls somewhere between Epcot and street vendor on the spectrum of authentic marketplaces. Don't get me wrong-- the taste and variety of food is fantastic-- but Reading Terminal is uncharacteristically pristine for Philadelphia, a trait that I find somewhat unsettling.

Anyhow, the food was pretty good at Nanee's Kitchen, the Indian counter at which I ended up dining. When I go to restaurants where I don't know what I like, I tend to ask what the house specialty is-- in this case it was the vegetarian plate. Some of the foods were sweet, some were spicy. I'm not a picky eater, but I seemed to have missed the part of eating Indian food that was supposed strike fear in my heart. Seventeen's food-fearless reccomendation was obviously praiseworthy in encouraging girls to try new things, especially things of the food variety, but it would have been nice to see the suggestion presented in a light that didn't cast a negative shadow of fear on eating or make the previous experiences of girls seem so limited. After all, some girls may have eaten Indian food before, or might actually, gasp, be Indian.

On a tangent note, I'm not the first to notice the bizarre conflation of emotion and morality with food. Desserts are frequently described as sinfully sweet. Chocolate is a guilty pleasure. Waiters tell you to "be bad" and go ahead and order dessert. I could have sworn I read a post on this over at Sociological Images, or maybe it was Jezebel, but I can't seem to find anything right now. I would like to link to this post if I can. Anyone know what I'm talking about?

Edit: Commenter LiberalElitist15 found the Jezebel article here. It's as great as I remembered.

For my day out, I accessorized my favorite (vintage) floaty dress, with a fun vintage sash belt, both inspired by Katy Perry. Unfortunately, my arm and Indian food platter are obscuring your view of the outfit. An article with pictures of this outfit will run eventually in the Philadelphia Inquirer, so I'll steal their pictures once that goes up.

Overall the day was pleasant, but not any more so than the day-to-day fun that I plan for myself.

P.S. GRADUATING TOMORROW! :)

Pretty Privilege

Since eighth grade my friend Dominique and I always discussed hosting a clothing swap. For the uninitiated, a clothing swap is an event to which guests bring their old clothes and swap them for the other guests' castoffs. Getting this event together was something that we were always semi-serious about. We liked the idea of free clothes and recycling, but always had the feeling that these sorts of events were only hosted by rom-com protagonists who somehow lived in Manhattan lofts on cupcake bakery salaries, not mere mortals like ourselves.

With college and summer on the horizon, though, our demand for clothes was increasing and our supply of capital was decreasing. This unique set of conditions allowed us to get into the perfect mindset for organizing a bona fide clothing swap. Coincidentally, I had noticed in one of my frequent perusals of the Seventeen website, that the Green Your Life! section was also pushing for readers to organize swaps.

This double coincidence was rom-com perfect. Dominique and I, along with our friend Mallory, finally organized the clothes swap, which was held last night at the upscale fashion boutique known as MyLivingRoomDiningRoomAndFoyer, thanks in part to the massive cooperation of my mom and dad.

The swap started at 6:00 pm. Between the three of us, Dom, Mal, and I invited about 150 people on Facebook, about half of whom replied attending or maybe attending. Honestly, we had no idea how many people were coming, which was incredibly frightening. Luckily, at 5:45 pm the sky let forth what can only be described as a torrential downpour, which led to only 20 girls showing up. Even more luckily, these 20 girls brought over 2000 articles of clothing. The swap was in business.

I wore a fishtail braid and Seventeen's suggested over-the-knee sock trend, which unfortunately wasn't captured in any photos. Once the swap was in fully swing, guests sorted their clothes and were allowed to take home as much as they felt they were entitled to, based on how much they brought. This system worked out surprisingly well. Uncharacteristic of rom-coms, there was no hair-pulling or cat-fighting between those two girls who both absolutely had to have that one pair of boots/earrings/pants. Everyone was amicable, and everyone who came went home with a big bag of clothes for free.

The swap ended at 9:00 pm and we spent the next hour bagging the unclaimed clothes. Overall, we managed to fill six trash bags with items to donate. Ideally, my friends wanted to give the leftover clothes to thrift stores that benefit victims of sexual assault and domestic violence who live in our region. Upon phoning those stores, I learned that they're overwhelmed with donations, and that a few of them actually send all incoming clothes to India on barges to be recycled. This is ridiculous and incredibly ironic, but I have better things to do than protest women's shelters for their poor environmental practices. I ended up putting the clothes into one of those metal boxes in the YMCA parking lot so that they could go to needy families in the area.

Hosting the swap got me thinking a lot about privilege. In stalking myself and this project a little bit in the press, I've noticed how some people are quick to discredit my opinions based on the fact that I come from a financially comfortable background, with access to opportunity. Privilege is defined as a special benefit not enjoyed by everyone. What I find interesting is the portion of this definition with which people find fault. I've noticed people tend to be more offended by the special benefit part than the fact that this benefit is not equally distributed. For example, I've noticed that people who cannot afford access to a private college are often quick to reject the merits of a private school, instead of considering that it could possibly be beneficial if the opportunity of private college were available to more people. (I am not saying I necessarily agree with either side of this dispute-- I am just saying that the system may not be the problem, but rather the lack of mass access to the system.)

The clothing swap was definitely an event that could only be hosted and attended by people with means enough to have spare clothes in good condition to swap-- people with some degree of privilege. I guess what I'm getting at is that instead of focusing on what opportunities privilege includes, we should be focusing more on who privilege excludes. Instead of calling privilege out as a negative trait, the far more progressive option would be to begin to work on ways to bring the opportunities that privilege provides to more people. By simply reframing the way that we think about and discuss privilege, it would lead to an environment far less conducive to finger pointing, and far more open to problem solving.

Edit: There is some good discussion going on in the comments!

NOT

Next week is finals week, so today I was back in school for my last "real" week of high school-- ever. I decided to try this outfit inspired by Audrey, a member of the Seventeen style council. I actually like the outfit on her, sort of, but I felt really out of character wearing it myself. My dad, who rarely makes any sort of contrary comment about anything I wear, seemed really confused about why I was wearing a shirt under a dress. So did a number of people at school. I know its just a basic layered outfit, but maybe this look is a little fashion forward for my small town. Then again, maybe I just couldn't pull it off. Either way, I don't think it's something I'll be wearing again. Felt a little early Madonna to me. Little bit too bubblegum pop.

Also wore this ribbon updo. This was really well received by all of my friends. I thought to myself, "Maybe I'm finally getting the hang of this 'normal teen' thing!"

Unfortunately, when I visited Seventeen.com to pull the above picture for this post, I realized how inaccurate my feelings were. Of all the beauty tips that I have tried, the one that had won me the most compliments in my personal life was a hairstyle voted as NOT by 82,000 people in the Seventeen world. I can't win.

Tonight I finished my last paper that I will ever have to write for high school, so I should have some time to put together some more in depth posts/projects etc. I've got a couple of interesting things in the works for the remainder of the project, as well as for afterward. Pretty excited...

9 days until grad!

Waxing/Waning

Today was a hugely busy day for me. I woke up late for school and had to rush out the door with my hair in a ponytail and no makeup. I did, however, use this opportunity to try out the romper--the thinking man's unitard-- a trend that Seventeen online swoons over. After all, what could be better for a person with no time for fashion than an article of clothing that comes all in one piece? World's easiest outfit, except for peeing. In that forum its the world's most difficult outfit. Unfortunately, I didn't get to snap a picture of myself a-rompin'. I did, however, capture my onesie, er, romper, on video. (See below.)

I spent the better half of my afternoon engaged in prom related activities. I went to the florist to order my boutonnière. I researched hairstyles online. I got my eyebrows waxed.

Seventeen Prom suggested that I shape my brows 5 days before prom. I wasn't aware of this timetable until I got the magazine yesterday, so it came as a shock to me when I realized how far behind schedule I was!

I was going to pluck my eyebrows myself, but I figured that since I was running behind on the schedule it might be okay to get them waxed at a salon, that way I wouldn't have to worry about them turning out poorly. Not wanting to defy Seventeen in any way, though, I consulted with the website before committing to waxing. It turns out that Seventeen does approve of waxing, or at least that's the conclusion that I drew from this article on their website. I decided to go for it.

The ladies over at Salon 39 were kind enough to let me record the ordeal. Honestly, the video is pretty boring. Its 15 solid minutes of hair removal. I'll admit, laying on a plastic table in a toddler outfit getting hairs ripped out of my face with hot wax is not one of my proudest moments. Still, I decided to post it to make up for the lack of romper pictures.

**Not to be a huge tease, but I can't figure out how to upload a YouTube video that is more than 10 minutes, and I don't know how to edit a Quicktime movie to a shorter length. Thus, there is no video for now. Here is a still from it. If someone can help me out a little (tutorial somewhere?) it would be greatly appreciated!**

Here is the after picture:

They look pretty good I think. I was worried about getting that perpetually surprised look, but I think I'm in the clear. Please excuse the non-Seventeen-approved frizz. The humidity here is killing me.

Some other (non-waxing) stuff:

• I did an interview with the nice people over at I Heart Daily. Click the link if you want to read it.
• CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: I am looking to create a list of teen friendly products and media that "get it." I hope for this list to serve as a resource to girls (and parents) who are looking for an alternative to the stuff marketed at teens today. If you know of any movies/books/media/institutions that seem to understand teenagers in a way that Seventeen doesn't, please send your recommendations my way! These don't necessarily need to be media created for teens, just media that is accurate of its portrayal and understanding of the teenage experience. If you are company that makes an innovative, teen-friendly product, also feel free to contact me. I'll link to everyone that contributes!

The "Tribal Trend" Trend

I'm at the beach. Well, I am in close proximity to the beach, but today was too cloudy to actually work on my tan and look confident in my bikini, so I decided to spend the day doing what every Seventeen reader, except me, does best-- shopping. The Atlantic City Outlets are about 5 miles from my grandpa's house, or a half hour bike ride. I ride to school in dresses pretty frequently, but that's less than a mile. I assume that Seventeen doesn't expect its readers to sacrifice their hobbies in the name of fashion (are Seventeen readers even expected to have hobbies?), so I didn't, and I rode the 5 miles in this outfit, which was actually not a big deal at all. I have yet to find an outfit that I can't ride in, heels not excluded.

I've been consciously avoiding trying this trend though, which Seventeen calls "Bright Prints," because to me it seems like a thinly veiled variation on the "tribal" trend. Actually, its not even veiled at all. The blurb describing the look explains, "These tribal patterns have an 'I picked this up on vacation' feel, so you can look like you traveled the world--without leaving your backyard!"

Besides the obvious absurdity of trying to use clothes as a substitute for actual travel experiences, I'm not okay with this editorial because I'm uncomfortable getting behind a trend that seems to lump all non-Western cultures together under the homogenous, inaccurate, and offensive moniker of "tribal." It takes fashion's habit of cultural appropriation one step further by saying, "Not only are we going to mark elements of your culture as passing trends, but we are going to marginalize them by packaging them together with elements from other unrelated cultures as well." Simply put, the whole thing sends a message that says, "Look how adooorable (and marketable) other cultures are!" It reeks of colonialism to me. I'm not opposed to designers taking fashion inspiration from artifacts of other cultures, but I'm opposed to this practice being insensitively marketed as tribal. It creates a distinct "us" and "them" dichotomy.

The "tribal trend" is a trend within itself. Every so often this sort of thing pops up in a magazine or in a designer's line, and the online community is quick to draw attention to it. Dodai at Jezebel touched on this issue a few years ago in her piece about American Apparel's "Afrika" print. Over at Sociological Images they have collected a huge number of examples of appropriation of Native American icons in style.

When it came down to it, though, I wore the outfit on my shopping trip, and nobody seemed to notice or care about which cultures I did or did not appropriate. In fact, plenty of stores stocked things that fit perfectly within this trend, which is at least an indicator that Seventeen is successful at highlighting current trends. I would be concerned if they weren't, though, since this is basically the only direct redeeming quality about the publication that I have been able to ascertain up until this point.

Some tanks in line with the "Bright Prints" trend at Old Navy:

To go with my "Bright Prints" look, I also got my nails done to follow the "Bright Colors" trend that Danielle, age 15, from Minneapolis speaks so highly of. She writes, "Whenever I'm feeling down, I can just look at my nails and feel peppy!" This is bleak. I wish Seventeen would suggest a hobby for Danielle so she didn't have to look to idle nail-gazing as her only source of joy.

Hopefully tomorrow will be warmer so that I can go to the beach!

In Pursuit of the Teenage Dollar

Seventeen Style Council member Anna, age 20, feels "remarkably 'West Coast'" in her cutoff sweatshirt. To be honest, I am not sure to which west coast she is referring. This photo is featured in the June/July issue of Seventeen. Even in my tee shirt variation on this outfit, I was sweltering amidst eastern Pennsylvania's high-80s temperatures. I can only imagine what it would be like wearing this in mid-summer Los Angeles. The full face of makeup I am wearing didn't do much to help me keep cool. Neither did the "sultry waves" that I styled last night. Perhaps Anna summers on the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. Seems like the only logical explanation for a sweatshirt in July being described as "West Coast."

I always question how real these "real girl" fashion bits are. With the number of teen magazines that have folded lately, I've lately assumed that every article of clothing/accessory spotted in the pages of a magazine was the result of some sort of lucrative product-placement deal. Some investegation revealed that Anna, 20, is indeed a real person-- in fact, she goes to Columbia University and has Twitter. I wonder if she actually chooses the outfits she wears in the magazine. What sort of authority do you think the Style Council has? Can they veto official style bills?

I had difficulty finding information regarding how much compensation Seventeen receives for including items in the magazine. I'm going to continue to look into this, because I am curious to see how much of what is being suggested to teens is actually thinly-veiled advertising. In the mean time, however, I decided that the actual ad content included in Seventeen was deserving of some scrutiny.

Magazines profit from ad sales more than they do from newsstand sales or subscriptions. From a business standpoint, the essential purpose of magazines (or television, or radio) is to round up a group of similarly demographic'd consumers that advertisers can easily target. I figured that the advertising content might have something to say about what the average Seventeen reader is imagined to be like. In the 171 page issue, there were 91 ad spaces. Here is how the content broke down:

This amount of data was too overwhelming. I decided to group products into categories to see if I could discern some sort of trend.

Unsurprisingly, over 75% of the advertising content in Seventeen is "stuff that makes you look better."

I'm not heading toward any sort of conclusive argument with these graphs. Just thought it was an interesting exercise to explore how low the bar is set for Seventeen readers when it comes to what advertisers think will interest them. Products advertised definitely skew more toward tangible than experiential, and more toward short-term use than long-term investment. It would be interesting to do a similar data sample with the Economist or the New York Times. Wonder if this way of thinking is something that applies to all demographics, or mostly just teens.

Tomorrow I'll be riding in Critical Mass, a decidedly non-Seventeen activity. I'm going to break character for a second and encourage people in metropolitan areas (or anywhere) to get out and ride their bikes tomorrow (and every day!).

The rest of the weekend I'll be at the shore solemnly commemorating our fallen soldiers, along with the hundreds of other Philadelphians who head towards Jersey's beaches to get a more firsthand perspective on what it was like to be on they beaches at Normandy. JK we're all actually going there to get bronze, go shopping, and participate in other Seventeen-approved activities.

Frivolous

Today was my first real fashion day. This is all good and well, except for the fact that it was Sunday, I had nowhere to go. Seventeen Hair Calendar Girl had Sunday blocked out for a backyard BBQ, but all that I had scheduled for today was writing a paper for school, an activity that I usually do in clothes with elastic waistbands.

Anyhow, I ended up going to DSW this morning so I'd have an excuse to get dressed. The real me has been avoiding the ordeal that is shopping for prom shoes, but the Seventeen Me loves shopping and especially loves prom (!!!!).

Today I tackled the "Glam Camp" look from the magazine.

This outfit seemed like a good point of entry since, save for the heels and socks, it isn't that fashion-ey. Socks and heels are not commonly paired here in suburban Pennsylvania, but I thought DSW might be a good place to give it a chance since it seemed probable that the people there might understand fashion (at least from the knees down).

I also tried the "Shine Down" summery makeup look with the "Mermaid Braid" from the "Special Guide for Girls with Thick Waves, Frizzy Curls, or Poufy Hair." I will address this guide in more depth at a later day, because I've got an entire post worth of thoughts on it. For now, here are my efforts...

The general thinking behind magazine makeup seems to be "pack shit all over your face so it looks like you don't have pores." This seems bizarre to me, but I won't claim to "get" fashion. I can appreciate good design, but the notion of adorning yourself makes me feel a little like a commodity.

My mom seems to like this project because it means I am dressing less like an independent bookstore employee/NPR listener and more like a Normal Teen. People in public seem to be pretty receptive to the look too. I definitely felt attractive, but I also felt stupid, because I am not sure what sort of rational person goes to a giant shoe warehouse in heels. Seems frivolous.

I bought three pairs of shoes at DSW..... something about being frivolous also makes you fiscally irresponsible I guess.

"I'm buying this for research..."

Even from a young age, I've always been a fan of magazines. They promise this sort of life changing power that, if you're willing to suspend disbelief for the length of time it takes you to read the magazine, always seems to get you pretty (if falsely) excited for life.

This is incredibly bleak. I know.

Anyhow, I got to thinking about the role of beauty/fashion magazines in society, and the industry's intentions. Obviously, teen magazines are not intended to serve as manuals for better living. An informal poll of my friends indicated that roughly 0% of the girls I associate with actually apply the advice they get from magazines to their daily life. Save for the occasional "My-Ear-Got-Deformed-From-A-Cartilage-Piercing" horror story, however, these magazines offer little more than exhaustive lists of how to become cuter/hotter/thinner/fitter/healthier/more popular/etc. So if nobody is applying these supposedly life-changing tips, why are people still buying these magazines? (Cue inevitable: "They're not... print media is dead!") Are we really entertained by lists of makeup tips and pictures of girls in intensely-layered ensembles that we aren't likely to wear? (Guilty pleasure answer: Yes?)

More importantly though, what would happen if an actual teenager were to apply all of these "tips and tricks" to her life? Would it actually improve? Would she actually become cuter/hotter/thinner/fitter/healthier/more popular? Do embodying these traits even make one's life more fulfilling?

This is what I will set out to explore. The goal of this project is to simply explore a dying aspect of teenage culture. I will live my life according to the tips provided by the June/July issue of Seventeen magazine and Seventeen.com from today until the weekend of my high school graduation (June 21). Conveniently, this project will also span the Most Important and Magical Night of My Teenage Life (i.e. senior prom). I will use this blog to record my findings, and to provide commentary on teenage life/the adolescent experience.

Here are the rules of the project:

1. I will read the entire June/July issue of Seventeen magazine from cover to cover.
2. Every day I will utilize at least one "beauty tip" (hair/makeup/skincare/whathaveyou) and one fashion tip.
3. I will follow all diet and exercise tips provided in the issue to a T.
4. I will participate in every activity recommended by the magazine (i.e. host a fright night, score your hottest summer hookup ever, be confident in a bikini, etc.)
5. I will apply for every single "freebie" offered by the magazine, every day.
6. I will consume all media recommended by the magazine at least once. (books/movies/music)
7. I will hang all provided pictures/posters of "hot guys" in my living environment.

Hopefully in following these rules I will be given the opportunity to shed some light on the modern teenage experience. On this blog, I will document my project, as well as offer commentary on media and teenage culture.

Full disclosure, I am probably far too self aware for this project to draw any sort of credible conclusion on the effects of teen magazines on teen girls. An initial "picture walk" of this month's issue seems to point to the idea that sarcasm/cynicism/self-awareness doesn't exist in the sub-21 world. Nonetheless, I am excited to see where this takes me.