Fashion

Think about how much of the fashion world middle school aged girls are exposed to every day. When I was in middle school eight years ago, Abercrombie teen stores weren’t quite as common. We had to drive over an hour to the closest one. Now, most malls that have Abercrombie and Fitch have the smaller-size store. Teens are sexualized by these stores' advertising images.

Also, Stuff by Hilary Duff, which now has put out quite a number of Do It Yourself accessories and fashion items is extremely popular and hip with kids even younger than middle school. The Olsen Twins line that sells (sold?) at Walmart was huge with that age demographic and was often high fashion styles (although sometimes a season or two late) for extremely affordable prices.

Here are some sites that middle schoolers might use to catch up on their fashion news, trends and even create communities:

Flip.com

Which Kim posted earlier and I gave a comment about.

FabSugar.com (Popsugar.com, etc.)

Like the Facebook for Teen and Tween (and quite often much older) lovers. It allows you to create a profile and put in it your favorite stores, brands and even celebrities. Instead of a Facebook like list, there are pictures for your favorite things. There’s groups and you can friend people. There are look books you can create with pictures of your outfits and then the Web site posts their favorites of the day on the FabSugar blog. You can add videos as well. Each celeb has a page devoted to them and their pictures. There’s tons of magazine scans, etc.

If you ask me, they really don’t use their advertising ability to the greatest amount. I suppose having a page for each of the brands (even including things like Star Bucks) is sort of like free advertising.

By doing things on the site, you get points which basically allow you to purchase free gifts to give to your friends and things as easy as leaving a comment earn you points. OK, I shamelessly love this site. I can’t help it.

MTV.com

Let’s not forget who is the major viewer of TRL, kids. It’s our demographic. Girls who still scream and cry when they get excited about something. On the site, you can create your own Virtual Hills character and hang out with Lauren, Heidi, Audrina, or Whitney. It’s like your very own fashion avatar. Kind of creepy, but totally middle school. All about growing up quite before you’re there yet.