The first thing Riam Dean’s mother said to me over the phone was “How has this story spread so quickly to the United States?”

The story of Riam Dean, the beautiful British law student with a prosthetic limb who was removed from her job at a London Abercrombie & Fitch shop floor because she violated their “look policy,” has been making headlines all over the world. Riam’s suing the company, and the public response has been overwhelmingly supportive. It seems we all harbor a lingering resentment toward the company that taught us, as pre-teens and teens, that the only acceptable all-American, cool-kid look involves perfect bodies, flawless faces, and super-fun trips to the beach with your equally gorgeous gang of BFFs and a boyfriend who can’t keep his hands off you.

The A&F catalog is different from Vogue magazine spreads or Versace ads because they specifically target us when we’re in our most vulnerable years — awkward, insecure and desperate to fit in. We drag our parents to their shops and we beg them to stretch their limited budgets to buy us overpriced uber-low-cut shorts and draped flannel tops, hoping that this time we’ll get to sit with the popular girls at lunch. It doesn’t work. As we get older, we feel manipulated and under-cut by their marketing tactics and imagery. And so we’re inclined to side with someone like Riam, who’s decided to fight back.

Zelda Lily has the exclusive first look at some of the statements that will be presented next week when Riam’s case goes to court. In her statement, Riam talks about being removed from the shop floor for wearing a cardigan, which apparently violates the store’s “look policy.” Riam had previously been given permission to wear the cardigan to cover the joint of her prosthetic left hand, but the company’s “visual team” — which inspects the appearance of the store’s employees — weren’t informed of the exception and were hostile with her. The store sent her to work in the stock room instead, and she calls her manager’s attitude toward her “combative and aggressive.”

It made me feel as though she had picked up on my most personal, sensitive and deeply buried insecurities about being accepted and included. Her words pierced right through the armour of 20 years of building up personal confidence about me as a person, and that I am much more than a girl with only one arm. She brought me back down to earth to a point where I questioned my self worth. My achievements and triumphs in life were brought right down to that moment where I realised that I was unacceptable to my employer because of how I looked. I have never before encountered the stark reality of this attitude, but deep down I have always feared this, and in that moment my worst fears were realised. My entire perception of my own my self worth was shattered. It was a moment of clarity and pain.

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Riam Dean, 22, a native of the United Kingdom is suing apparel magnate Abercrombie and Fitch for discrimination, and, if the suit goes as planned, it appears she’ll win.

A&F, one of the leading chain retailers in the world, has a very clear-cut, cookie-cutter version of what they want their employees’ appearances to embody, and according to management, Dean did not look like “a girl from Abercrombie and Fitch,” as LFO once said so obnoxiously/poetically.

Riam Dean has a prosthetic arm that attaches at the elbow, and she typically wears a sweater to cover the prosthetic. While A&F employees are required to wear jeans and a polo shirt, she was given permission to wear a white cardigan while working on the floor. But only a few days after she started work, the store was paid a visit by the “visual team.” This group’s purpose is to sure the shop and its staff look up to code. One of the members of the team demanded she take off the cardigan, but she insisted she had permission to wear it. Nevertheless, she was asked by management to continue her employment in the stockroom, far out of the public eye.  Management claimed that she “violated the ‘Look Policy,” which is an imperative part of working for such a prestigious clothing outlet.  As if she could help the fact that she is, unfortunately, missing an arm.  Totally her fault, I suppose.  The nerve.  Pssh.

Riam sucked it up and commenced her stockroom duties, normally reserved for the “underlings” (i.e., ethnic minorities) of Abercrombie & Fitch “society” and received a telephone call at home a few days later, asking if she would continue on board with the company’s stockroom until their winter uniforms came in, which consisted of long-sleeved tops. She quit on the spot.

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