<p>Hookah bars. Is this a new thing for teens?</p>
<p>Jazzymom: Yes, in certain areas. Generally hookah bars require people to be 18 just to enter, though.</p>
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<p>Okay, I understand about comfortable, but how comfortable can your feet be when your toes are turning blue from the cold? How does shivering equal comfort?</p>
<p>And the recurring theme I’m seeing here is that many of these questionable things are done for the sake of boys. I disagree. Girls (and women) <em>say</em> that fashion is all about boys (or men), but the reality is that they will almost always choose the hairstyle or fashion that their girlfriends think is cute over the ones their boyfriends think looks good. Girls don’t dress to impress boys; they dress to impress each other.</p>
<p>Girls wear high heels because they are sexy. They make your foot look good, and your calf look good and there is this feeling of confidence that comes with the putting on of ur favorite heelss that is unmacth. As for coureur, you have a superior knowledge of women. Im guessing you are a parent of girls.</p>
<p>OK…I’ll bite. Why would CA (not in a cold part of the state) girls wear Uggs and shorts? Sort of the opposite of why would Boston girls wear flip flops all winter?</p>
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<p>OH OH I have a question. What about the children who makes those jeans for pennies an hour, whose family have insufficient funds for the bare essentials because they all work in the factories who make those jeans? Are we trying to impress them by buying $300 jeans?
What about spending $300 on jeans when your high school economics class is teaching you that the country is trillions of dollars in debt, the younger generation is going to see huge increases in taxes to pay all this back.
Do high schools teach you that some things are unnecessary when there are many many reasons to put most of that money away?</p>
<p>I’m not opposed to owning lavish luxuries, but that doesn’t make it responsible by any means. There are plenty of good causes u can contribute to by buying $150 dollar jeans, giving $50 to a good cause and putting the other $100 in the bank.</p>
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<p>EVEN I KNOW THIS ONE. Blame the media. Instead of teaching the children to think for themselves, the corporations tell them what is cool and what isn’t. Teenagers are the heart and soul of marketing. For the big companies they are easy targets since they don’t think as independently and responsibly as adults. So if UGGS pays MTV to advertise their boots on Malibu Girls, or whatever the teenage drama “reality” show is this week, ahoy the youngsters will follow. NEWSFLASH teenage women - It is far cooler to have your own style, and to set trends than to follow them.</p>
<p>Great thread!</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Are girls really ok with the ‘FWB’ (Friends With Benefits) arrangement or do they secretly wish the guy would be exclusive?</p></li>
<li><p>A teen girl told me that it is now considered ‘cool’ to be bi, and a lot of girls pretend to be bi to impress the guys. Is this true?</p></li>
<li><p>What attributes (hair, clothing: designer vs baggy, musical taste, etc.) do most girls like in guys?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>UriA702: You’re turning a light and fluffy thread into something though-provoking. (You are absolutely right, of course!)</p>
<p>I just want the teenagers who see this to get an idea of who sets the fads they follow. It’s funny how they think older folks “don’t get fashion.” because they have no idea that the very same people are the ones who are setting these trends for you to follow by marketing their products to you.</p>
<p>I agree with Coureur pretty much. I have two girls. I think they dress for themselves and not for boys. And certainly it is the other girls who take notice of their clothing choices, more than the boys who don’t care that much about clothes. I really doubt my kids dress for the purpose of attracting boys. One of my daughters wears no make up and is constantly putting her hair in a big “messy bun” knot and if anything, I think she is not doing anything for the purpose of attracting boys! I think she could but this is not a priority. My other kid likes fashion a bit more but I really don’t think it is with boys in mind and she is more focused in establishing her own style for herself. And lots of time she only cares about comfort and her hair is in a knot or with a headband or scarf. I always worry about her safety as she has to walk home very late at night in NYC to her apartment alone every night due to her schedule and I feel that makes her vulnerable and she’ll reply to my concerns with: “I look like a bum…nobody will bother me.” 
Then again, I was at her apartment a week ago and she got home at 3 AM from her cast party and she wore a very short very bare revealing style dress with heels to it and she didn’t look like a bum that night. I could not fall asleep at her apartment until she got back. Thankfully, she had the wisdom to take a taxi. </p>
<p>By the way, my kids have never had designer jeans, nor been interested in them. That said, even ones that are not “designer” are not that cheap…such as JCrew or other chains of that sort. But they are cheaper than designer ones. My kids are not very into labels and never have been but that may be a product of growing up in a rural area (and while we outfit our girls generously with clothing, we can’t afford designer labels even if they were interested, but they are not.)</p>
<p>Leal,</p>
<ol>
<li>I’m sure it depends on the girl. Most girls in a FWB situation are OK with it in my experience. Sometimes a girl will want a relationship with the guy, but that’s not universal. </li>
<li>Some girls fake-pretend to be bi. It’s common knowledge, of course, that most men are turned on by two girls kissing, so insecure high school girls aiming to please men will make out with other girls in order to get guys. They don’t usually go so far as to actually pretend to be bi. In fact, many of the girls I knew who did this in high school were actually quite homophobic. </li>
<li>Not my forte. </li>
</ol>
<p>UriA, you don’t need to be so condescending. I think many teenagers recognize that the people making these jeans are in China, or Mexico, or Vietnam. Since those people are not the girls down the street, those aren’t the people the girls are aiming to impress, as I’m sure you know. Of course, the same workers are the ones making $30 jeans for Old Navy, so I don’t really see the point. In general, high schools don’t teach students to save money, and parents don’t teach their kids to save money. That’s because adults in America right now aren’t saving. Kids don’t save? Well, I’m not surprised. Who’s taught them to?</p>
<p>(I don’t own designer jeans. I’ve worked in one capacity or another since I was 9, full time jobs since I was 15. I buy my own clothes, and $300 jeans aren’t worth it to me. Most of my money stays in high yield CDs.)</p>
<p>flip-flops:
I’m far from being a teenager but I wear flip-flops and shorts year-round. They’re quick and comfortable. If it’s a little cold out then I’ll wear a light jacket along with my flip-flops and shorts.</p>
<p>Opposite state:
I guess it’s for the fashion statement but why do guys wear hoodies with the hood on or knit caps pulled down over their ears when it’s 98 degrees out? There’s no way this is actually comfortable.</p>
<p>Baseball caps with flat brims and the labels still on, at a 45 degree angle? Worn by white kids who, should they ever wander into an actual ghetto, would soil their exposed boxers and oversize pants?</p>
<p>Oh, drb, I think you might be surprised. I’ve seen my fair share of wannabe gangstas actually attempt to befriend said gangstas. It’s usually after they are shamed/humiliated publicly/beat up that they go back to pulling up their pants and wearing their hats correctly.</p>
<p>Hookah bars have been popular here(Ca) since I can remember. When I was 12 in berkeley, someone offered me my first drag (My uncle yanked my arm and smacked me before I tried it, awesome uncle). The thing about hookah bars is that you only have to be eighteen. And it is easier for younguns to look 18 then 21… Its really big in santa cruz where my bbrother is… but than again its santa cruz. point taken.</p>
<p>Uggs and shorts… hmm actually here its uggs and lil denim skirts. Well uggs are comfy and lil skirts are “cute” also the girls on mtv do it. Unfortunately many teens need no other reason to jump off the bridge</p>
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<p>OH OH I KNOW THE ANSWER TO THIS ONE TOO.
- Old Navy Jeans costs 10% of what Diesel jeans cost. Not that that justifies child labor, but by paying $300 for a pair of Diesel jeans, you are making a bigger statement. Nobody expects the folks who shop at Old Navy to be huge contributors to society. Folks who willingly purchase brand names KNOW that a $300 pair of jeans costs pennies to mass produce, if the company is goingto charge $300 why not pay laborers sufficiently. It’s not like their profit disappears if they do that their profit margins are still in the thousands of %. As opposed to pay laborers fairly, they provide them with miserable working conditions and pay pennies a day to save money to market to our teenagers. If this was the case where US children were being put to labor, the entire country would be up in arms. What makes Chinese, Mexican, Vietnamese or Portugese children any different than our own. </p>
<p>Which brings up the question is the Gap Inc. argument valid? No, because Gap Inc. is a US based organization. We send a stronger message by supporting Diesel, Prada, Fendi, and other Italian based brands by supporting imported we know are produced in miserable working conditions. We can not do anything about US brands marketing to their own people, but we can send a message to foreign designers that if they want our business they should eliminate those conditions, especially when they rip us off blind on their products. </p>
<p>I would gladly pay $30 instead of $20 for a shirt from Gap that was produced in the u.s. paying minimum wage laborers. Not that Gap Inc. has any right to employ underage children illegally, but what type of message are we sending to these foreign designers about the Americans people morale when are being ripped off blind while knowing exactly how these products are produced?</p>
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<p>OH OH I KNOW THE ANSWER TO THIS ONE TOO. It’s our faults we are not saving. Why is it that the American public is always so quick to blame their issues on everyone except themselves. More Americans are in debt now than ever. What if we teach children that one of the contributing factors to our weakened economy is the fact that adults didn’t save enough? Don’t we have an encumbrance to the youth to raise awareness on past generations mistakes, so that they will not repeat them.</p>
<p>By allowing TEENAGERS to spend tremendous amounts of money on non-essential such as Diesel brand products, we are not only supporting foreign brand maker’s who are making fools of us, but are allowing them to be financially irresponsible at very young ages.</p>
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<p>Because “cool” hip-hop icons such as Sean Combs tell our children if you want to be cool you have to buy our products and make a fool of yourself in public.</p>
<p>Danielle - I have a question for you. Why is it that teenagers follow trends to separate themselves from lame adults. Why buy into what MTV says is cool? The same lame adults you try to be different from (what you would call the conformists) are the ones who tell teenagers how to dress. Why follow what MTV says, instead of following what everyone else does, why not be a trend setter instead a follower?</p>
<p>Hi Danielle, </p>
<p>A couple of questions, please…</p>
<p>When my daughters (aged 20 and 22) graduate from college do I still have to give them money or are they to be considered on their own?</p>
<p>When one wants to get married, how much am I obligated to give her for the wedding? I mean, after all, I’ve paid everything else…</p>
<p>Signed,</p>
<p>Anxious Dad (in Florida) :)</p>