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- Forever 21's Maternity Line: Glamorizing Teen Pregnancy?
The clothing company Forever 21 just launched a new line of clothing for pregnant women. This is causing a bit of a stir with some people for a few reasons. Forever 21 is a store whose demographic largely consists of a younger, generally teenaged crowd. Opponents, being careful to specify that it’s not that pregnant women should be unfashionable, are arguing rather that the company is glamorizing teen pregnancy. A CNN reporter asked the Executive VP Larry Meyer about if they were encouraging teen pregnancy. He responded by saying, “Well, quite honestly, people and analysts try to put us into that teen world, but this company has been around for 26 years now, and we’ve always had a very wide customer base.” Hmm. Based exclusively and admittedly limitedly on my own anecdotal observations, that sounds kind of like bullshit.
It certainly doesn’t help their case that three of the stores where they’ve opened this line are located in places where teen pregnancy is high, to which the executive VP responded, “quite frankly that’s just coincidence.” I want to give Forever 21 the benefit of the doubt, here, I really do. Maybe it was the smarmy voice of the VP that really did them in for me (seriously, listen to the interview), but I kind of feel like they’re shamelessly exploiting teen pregnancy here. I’m not sure I believe that they’re glamorizing it, although I can see that argument, but I think they found a niche market of teenagers that they had yet to tap into, and now they’ve done that.
Regardless of their shameless exploitation, however, I guess it would be kind of nice to have Forever 21 clothes as a pregnant women. They’re inexpensive and for the most part fashionable. I think if I were pregnant, it would be nice to not have to spend a lot of money on pregnancy clothes that are not terrible looking. So I guess it’s not all bad to me.
However, I’m not the one who matters here — do you think Forever 21 is encouraging teen pregnancy with their new line?
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This is stupid, it’s just like the post yesterday about Marks and Spencer making school uniforms for obese children somehow encouraging childhood obesity!
So we shouldn’t make clothes for pregnant women, because that is glamourizing pregnancy and so will encourage them to get pregnant and gasp – mean the continuation of the human race!
We can’t have a bunch of naked pregnant bitches running around either! (I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist paraphrasing Knocked Up! I am not using this phrase in a derogatory fashion! pun intended!)
As a postscript, Jennifer “JWoww” Farley from Jersey Shore, admittedly not a paragon of maturity, is 23 and shops at Forever 21, so they have got early to mid 20’s customers.
I know that only thing that kept me from getting obese and or pregnant when I was younger was that I may not be able to find hot fashions to cover my fat self.
How times have changed…
I’ll freak out if Hot Topic makes maternity clothes. It’s a business and they want to make money. There are huge number of very young girls and young women out there that think that being a mother is going to give them a fulfillment that they have never received from their families, that’s not going to change. So let them be stylish while being pregnant.
I read an article about this a while ago. They had numbers of the ages of them women buying the maternity line. The highest percentage of women buying them were over 22. Have you actually looked at the clothes? They all look like something somebody in their 20’s would wear. Not particularly “teenage” fashion.
Personally, I was a pregnant teenager years ago, and it would’ve been great to have clothes that fit and didn’t make me look like a walking baby shower.
I’m all for anything that promotes actual fashion for pregnant women. Why does it have to be so damned difficult to find jeans and a t shirt when you’re pregnant?
My initial thought was that women in their early 20s wear this as well. Just because teens wear the brand doesn’t mean that teens are the exclusive market. If I were to get pregnant and still be wearing the type of clothing I do now, I’m sure I would appreciate something other than a maxi dress to wear.
How is providing maternity wear glamorizing teen pregnancy? How is it shameless exploitation? Would your rather pretend teens don’t get pregnant? Are you saying that women in their 20s who shop at Forever 21 should stop shopping there once they get pregnant? Please, please, please don’t try to tell me you think a teenage girl is gonna go out and get pregnant because she sees cute maternity clothes at her favorite store.
What’s next, a Fox-like headline claiming “New Trend: Girls get pregnant to fit into clothes for a few months?”
Please… Of course Forever 21 didn’t launch a pregnancy line out of generosity. People were interested, there was a market, and well, teens-who are *only* a part of their clientele- might buy them. So what? Should they wear sackclothes and ashes because they’re pregnant teens? I’d think that being a pregnant teen, by itself, is punishment enough…
If people are worried about teen pregnancy, they should worry more about the importance (and actual lack) of sex ed. for girls AND boys than about clothes…
whoa- I posted a long comment yesterday and it isn’t here… wtf?
We switched servers overnight and some things may have gotten lost in translation – literally, ha. We’re working on restoring everything, so if it’s gone now, it should be back at some point.
Gigi, when did you post your comment?
erm monday between 3-11pm …iunno
it was about “16 and pregnant” and “teen mom”/ relevant in some way which seems too difficult to articulate at this point in time.
I’m a longstanding fan of forever 21, and would totally wear their clothes if I got knocked up. I just think it’s silly that they could be accused of “encouraging” teen pregnancy. Does anyone really encourage such a thing? The fact is, most of their customers will, at some point in their lives, become pregnant, and why should a natural life stage stop anyone from buying cute clothes?
Also, my local Target has their maternity stuff right next to their junior’s department, and I have yet to hear anyone accuse Target of attempting to seduce teenagers into underage motherhood. Seesh.
As others have pointed out, lots of 20-something women (including myself) shop at Forever 21. Some pregnant teens may buy the clothes, but, hey, they need clothes, too. Would it be better for them to walk around naked for 9 months?
But it’s not like they can’t find clothing elsewhere….perhaps in a store not pumping tween music through the sound system.
Ummm…
Okay. I get it now!
All stores need to conform to certain standards, all persons entering should be prepared to present proof of age and pregnancy status or lack thereof.
Wow, I might be the only one not liking Forever 21 selling maternity clothes. There’s something morbid about it to me. I’ve seen a lot of very young girls shopping there. They claim it isn’t their target market but I’ve bumped into a TON of 10-13 year olds. It might not be outright encouraging teen pregnancy but I think we often over look the nuance influences that surround us every day. It reinforces the idea that young (I’m talking YOUNG) girls are having sex and getting pregnant. Offering clothing like this creates an air of normalicy when in actuality there is nothing normal about a 13 year old getting pregnant.
After reading this article I immediately thought of an incident I saw in my high school. A pregnant 9th(!) grader was standing in the hallway as she and her friends squealed while touching her moving belly and commenting on how cute she looked in her cheerleader outfit. Cut to months later, she and her two newly pregnant friends stood together talking about, once again, how cute they all looked. Teen pregnancy is a mega domino effect. I’m not saying we should shame these girls for getting pregnant however, maybe we should stop making it look so glamorous and fashionable. An ounce of shame is a wonderful motivator to make good decisions.
In regards to the school uniforms being offered in “obese sizes”, the hopelessly optimistic part of me wishes they didn’t offer them as a nice wake up call to parents. Geez, I can’t find any uniform that’ll fit my daughter/son because they’re so big?! Hmm..maybe I should start promoting healthier eating and stop buying processed crap. If only parents were that aware and observant.
The free market dictates what stores carry and sell.
Short version?
Don’t like the store or what it is merchandising, don’t shop there.
Do not pigeon hole people. It is dangerous and will severely limit your life experiences.
I haven’t been back to Forever 21 since. Please expand on the pigeon holing.
Perhaps I should have prefaced that this whole situation turned out to be the most ridiculous mind jarring bit of high drama I have ever witnessed. It was straight out of a crappy Lifetime movie. One of the girl’s had been so desperate to also get pregnant like her newly prego-popular friend that she slept with more than one football player to better her odds. (I wish I could say I was making this up, oh god how I wish I could) In the end she was never able to find out which was the baby’s father as neither of the player’s parents would agree to let their son have a paternity test. (Probably because they didn’t want to have to be responsible people. As far as I know it was all kept out of court so it remained a mystery. The third girl never really talked about who the father of hers was and tried to keep a low profile after all of this blew up. She wore baggy sweats while her friends both wore tight bedazzled t-shirts and jeans that began showing bare stomach towards the end of their pregnancies. Keep in mind I was in high school 9 years ago. This was well before the Glouster pact.
I know that this is an EXTREME case but both of those girls’ lives were basically ruined. Not because being a teen mom immediately means your life is ruined but because neither of the girls’ families were in a position to help them cope. Both dropped out of high school. One was later arrested for shop lifting. We continually give young girl’s such mixed messages about sex and their sexuality. With the growing number of teen pregnancies I feel compelled to air on the side of caution and keep cute trendy maternity clothing out of stores that tweens frequent without parental supervision. The maternity clothing listed on the web site is a very small sample of what’s actually in the store.
Also, preggings?! Oh man now I’ve officially seen every possible form of leggings. Haha!
OMG! Old Navy sells maternity clothes, but 5-year-olds shop there! 5-year-olds will be getting pregnant left and right if they see those maternity clothes!
Anyway, I work at Forever 21, and I honestly don’t think it’s geared towards tweens or that tweens should even be shopping there. If I were a parent, I wouldn’t let my 10-13 year old shop there without supervision. I mean, they could get away with some of the tunics or dresses we have with leggings, but there is a lot of club wear and things that girls that age have no business wearing. Also, I see a lot of pregnant women coming in (we don’t have the maternity line at my store) and they try to find every oversized t-shirt, every baggy tunic, and every maxi dress that would fit them. Finding maternity clothes on the cheap is hard, and I’m glad that F21 has expanded their market to pregnant women.
I would also like to add that the maternity line is part of the Love 21 line which is our line of clothing aimed towards more mature women in their 20’s-30’s.
What 13-year-old do you know would wear this:
http://www.forever21.com/product.asp?catalog_name=FOREVER21&category_name=love21_main&product_id=2055984916&Page=4&pgcount=20
The F21 near me must be an anomaly. Whenever I got in there I’m literally tripping over pre-pub girls. My friends and I often refer to it as the pre-pubescent H&M. I haven’t really been in the store in quite a while because at 24 I was feeling too old to be there.
It’s probably actually the forever 21 I work at that’s the anomaly. We are in an upscale outdoor mall (stores like White House Black Market, Ann Taylor, Banana Republic, etc), so we get an older clientele, but we still get the occasional 12 year old trying on the tight liquid leather mini-dress that she has no business even trying on, let alone buying. I don’t think Forever 21 is intentionally aimed towards tweens, I just think parents drop their kids off at the mall and the tweens like to play dress up in pretty older girl clothes.
Plenty of other stores where teens shop have maternity clothes (i.e. Target). Are you going to protest that, too?
As I stated in my post, the F21 near me is teaming with young girls, to the point that most women in their 20s don’t shop there. It’s become a transitional store between stores like Limited Too and Express so I do find it inappropriate that they sell maternity clothes. If Target chose to put maternity clothes in the junior’s department then yes, I’d protest. Target has a very wide market. They sell infant clothing to adult clothing, electronics, beauty supplies, pet food, craft materials, prescription drugs, furniture, and automotive parts. That’s not a strong analogy because what doesn’t Target sell?
Agree agree agree. Not that I am a proponant of shaming people, but shame and guilt are things that mold society. Conformity does too. And if pregnancy is cool, then girls will conform. It’s hard enough being a teen girl without being told at 10 you’re supposed to look like a stripper, which naturally leads to sex and teen pregnancy, which leads to more teen pregnancy. It just shouldn’t be encouraged so blatantly.
um. really? we dont. we might like to find our own style since we are teenagers. and personally i shop at forever21 a lot i this is the first time i noticed that they offer maternity clothes. and i get drummed into my head that teen pregnancy is bad for your life in general. but do you think that we dont know that? treat us with some respect, and dont think that we are just teenagers wanting to be cool
You are not the demographic I’d be worried about; the young, outspoken, self-determined young woman on a feminist message board. I’m worried about the girl who doesn’t have positive female role models in her life, who lives in a town with a high teen pregnancy rate, who wasn’t raised to think highly of herself or for herself. Clothing has always been a common means for inclusion and exclusion within a group (not everywhere but frequently) so I worry that with the teen pregnancy reality shows and new found celebrity, we’re linking a current trend with a growing trend in a potentially dangerous way.
That’s just my viewpoint on the matter. I don’t think anyone on the page thinks teenagers are dimwitted, especially myself.
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Some people are just ignorant. I’m 21 and pregnant, married and responsible but I still want to look good while I’m pregnant. When I found out that Forever21 had a maternity line, I was so excited because sometimes it’s hard for young moms to find really cute and stylish clothes that make them feel youthful and sexy. Thank you Forever21!
Hate all you guys want, but there IS a little bit of validity to the point made by the author, especially since the line was piloted in areas of high levels of teen pregnancy. I’m 26 and I shop at Forever 21, but in my city, the vast majority of the store’s patrons are under 18. All the little tweens look at me like I’m 45 when I go in there. A lot of the clothes there are geared towards people who are 16 or want to look 16- which is fine, I like to dress like Rainbow Bright. But after working as a nurse and a youth worker with teen girls- I must say I agree at least a little. I actually taught a sex ed class for underprivileged/minority teen girls. Girls at their school had babies around 13-18 because that’s what their mothers had done and all their girlfriends did it and treated their babies like toys. It was trendy. Making pregnancy more trendy in high risk areas- not cool. Let’s make birth control trendy instead. And then maybe we won’t see as many tween mothers giving birth to underweight babies while receiving government assistance for the children that they shouldn’t be having in the first place and can’t afford. Because teenage girls shouldn’t have babies, because they usually choose cute clothes over practical things like nutritious food. And if you ladies want to make some argument about my comment and take out all the pent up angsty-angst you have in your life just because you like to argue- I suggest you come work in a hospital first.
(I am not saying that it is wrong to make cute maternity clothes, just that high risk areas should not be targeted and exploited)
@Jennifer,…. WOW ,..you nailed the enter scope of the argument and posed the most accurate summation of the problem=teen pregnancies -which ARE essentially condoned for select members of society [ the poor and undereducated] and has disturbingly moved into to the entire population of teens as ” a cool thing to do” because “everybody’s doing it.”
and I completely agree with your astute recommendation that we should support birth control instead of arguing about who and what ‘makes teens decide to get pregnant’ .
@Sarah, your concern seems sincere and valid,..but the advice you suggest and the broad brushed attitude about this company’s unethical exploitation of pregnant teens [and not others who also exploit /cater to pregnant teen?] seems to me to be somewhat hypocritical -if not trivializing the real problem which I agree with Jennifer is CHILDREN HAVING BABIES. Of course this is also a blow back of global shrinking too. In central America and the Carribbean Basin islands -as well as other parts of the globe-children having babies has been a problem that peaked and in some areas is sustaining a third and fourth generation of this cycle. So, as teens perceive our ‘place and status in the global community -it is easy to see how the half baked and basted in hormones mind of a female teen could extrapolate that its cool and hip and shows solidarity with others who’ve endured this as a way of life for generations. The idealization of being a teen mom by reality TV scum lords is the worst waste of air time on so many levels it isnt funny-its simply perverse and sick. But a natural extension of the trash bag TV society that we’ve continued to watch and waste time over and twitter about. Maybe its only redemption is that it is indeed creating enough provocative discussion by literally shoving it in our faces and forcing us to acknowledge and admit that this is a growing trend among teens GLOBALLY-that oterwise we eould never even ponder because we are pregnant teens!
I’m happy for the low income high risk pregnant tweens & teens that they have a retailer ‘pandering’ to them by marketing around the notion that its “okay” to be preggers before you’ve graduated junior much less senior highschool. NO retailer of any product can be blamed for the spiked rates of teen pregnancies happening among our young teens-much less everywhere else on the globe.
The question that should be asked isnt whether stores can create an environment thats “capable” of exploiting others, its whether or not we choose to support a market that exploits its consumers, and that would need a very broad brush indeed!
I also beleive that if you see a new problem or situation that calls for a solution that you can provide a product or service for, you should go for it and commit to providing it. [ that's called a pragmatic approach to an already apparent problem, when someone steps up to the challenges of todays world and sees an ooportunity to provide a goods or service to someone else for a fee.]
If you saw all the pregnant teens in your area hitting that store up then that would indicate that the marketing analysis was pretty accurate -that there is a demand for their product right where they put their store! Thats the extent of culpability they have-in my humble opinion.
Deny, Deflect, Dismiss, Demonize. [the mantra of modern Americans]
ugh! missed word typo! In …that oterwise we eould never even ponder because we are pregnant teens!
should read,.. That otherwise we would never even ponder -because we are NOT pregnant teens today!