If you haven’t heard the news, Limited Too is relaunching in July. Yes, THE Limited Too.
Let’s go back in time. After a long day at school, you push the hanging door-beads aside and sit down in a blue glittery blow up chair. You look up and see the neon stars on your ceiling. On your dresser sits a lava lamp and above it, a poster of *NSYNC. Once you put in the Dream Street Hit Clip “It Happens Every Time,” (I just unlocked a core memory, didn’t I?), you say a secret word and the Secret Password Journal opens. Your closet is filled with shorts that have words (you know where!), spaghetti strap tank tops, Bermuda shorts, and plaid everywhere. Mom yells it’s time to go to Pizza Hut’s buffet and you grab your shoulder initial purse that is filled with butterfly hair clips, Love Spell body spray, Lip Smacker lip gloss and gel pens…
How different is that vision to your child’s room today?
There are some similarities. Boy band posters have been replaced with tapestries and flags. Lava lamps have been replaced with neon signs and password journals, and CDs are now located all on one device, a cell phone.
If you were born between 1980-2000, you know we love nostalgia.
Nostalgia is known to be linked to comfort. With apps such as TikTok and Instagram, millennials have discovered that each of us had the same universal experiences growing up. Whether it was straightening hair with an iron, hanging out with friends in a random field, or the lack of skincare and water intake. These apps have allowed us to bond on these shared experiences.
Being a young girl was easy compared to what our girls endure today. The celebrities we looked up to were Jennifer Aniston, Halle Berry, and Britney Spears. We wanted to be them, but all we did was cut our hair and match our clothes (if our parents allowed us). Girls today look up to influencers such as Kylie Jenner, Alix Earle, and Addison Rae. The problem is they all have had some type of body modification and are open about it. So long are the taboo days of plastic surgery and botox, which wasn’t even approved by the FDA until 2002.
Instead of cutting their hair, our teens are using an app called Facetune. If you aren’t familiar with the app, it can completely change how you look. The app allows you to change features such as waist size, cup size, eyelash length, skin color, and truly anything you can imagine. The dangers of this app can be detrimental to a girl’s self-image. According to the Dove Self-Esteem Project, by age 13, 80% of girls downloaded a filter or used an app to change the way they look in photos and 67% of girls try to change or hide at least one body part/feature before posting a photo of themselves. Our sweet girls are up against the world with beauty standards being at an all-time high and easier to achieve with a click of a button.
My dream with the upcoming Limited Too brand relaunch is that we encourage girls to live like we did: simply and with all the glitter. They need protection from this cruel world now more than ever. Let’s bring back the tracksuits and silky pajamas our moms never let us wear.
