Intro
hi karis great to meet you today hi
i
you look super fashionable so we should
definitely talk about fashion today
and uh
you know as a young teenager i know
clothes are super important for you
um
why are clothes so important for
teenager you know why
why are you
i will just talk about you because we're
talking to you so
why are clothes so important for a young
person
uh does it motivate you
to get affirmations from other does it
give you your con boost in confidence or
you know or it's just like following
some trends
give me your opinion on that
well i know most teenagers
Why do teenagers care about fashion
at least care about fashion at least a
little bit they like to dress up on
special occasions and stuff
um i'd say
a part of it is definitely the
validation of your peers like wearing
something trendy wearing something cute
you get a few compliments in the day you
feel better about yourself
um
but i think personally for me it did
start off that way wanted to get
validation from my peers but slowly it
became like an outfit an outlet for my
own like self-expression
if i felt more down one day maybe i'd
wear something more bright and peppy to
like bring up my own spirits if i wanted
to seem confident an interview i wear
something super professional so i could
almost embody what i think some like the
person the confident person i wanted to
be
like what they would wear
yeah
yeah great great so basically you're
saying that through your clothes
you are telling the person about your
moods
and also trying to
almost like sometimes
show the confidence that you know you
want others to think that you have maybe
you already do but you also want them to
believe in you right correct am i
correct oh yeah i definitely agree with
that
okay great great
um
also like uh
how can you say that fashion can be used
as a way of self-expression
How teenagers brains work
well i definitely think
so for me i was saying about like maybe
bold colors if you're feeling boldy but
bright colors you want a more feminine
look you wear floral colors
and i think it's a way where you don't
have to change your own body or your own
self but it's like a small way like for
you to dress the way that you feel on
the inside or you want other people to
think you feel yeah so are you dressing
up more for yourself or for others i
mean do you even remember other people's
clothing more than yours like what is
how do teenagers brains really work
right now for clothing and fashion
well i would say that i like to think
that i dress up more for myself but i
know there is a part of it
where it's like if i wasn't going to go
out with a bunch of people i wouldn't
dress up as nice
but yeah i think part of it is the
validation of other people but like you
just mentioned
um
yeah i don't usually remember what other
people wear
i don't think i can even remember what
no i don't think so so i guess it's more
people are kind of self-conscious of
what other people might think of them
when in reality no one really cares that
much yeah i think i think that's so true
and i think as we grow up we start
realizing that
we all are very inwardly focused right
we want to dress up as the trends but
we're really dressing up for our own
self and we really don't care what
others are watching or retaining in the
mind right
so charis how can fashion be used as a
way of self expression
well i think it's pretty great um
Gender expression
especially with gender expression
because
it allows you to mix feminine and
masculine elements and make your own
kind of thing for example maybe a girl
wants to wear more masculine clothes she
can wear like a dad shirt or a guy wants
more feminine clothes he can wear a
skirt
in fact
um
there have been like way more guys at my
school actually wearing nail polish and
people don't even bat an eye at it
anymore
um but not only that i think it's pretty
cool because non-binary people also get
the chance to maybe wear androidize
clothes so not leaning towards masculine
or feminine and i think fashion is a
great way of just expressing yourself
that way
yeah yeah yeah
i think getting
accepted when more and peop more and
more people start doing the same thing
like you said right the example of the
boys wearing nail polish right
i think it's really great that you know
kids are accepting that
yeah and trends are changing because
people are becoming pretty tolerant
about
self-expression
great thank you
yeah so i know you wrote a recent
article about dopamine dressing
tell me a little bit about
what you learned from it
dopamine dressing
Dopamine dressing
well i thought it was pretty interesting
it's like coming up with clothes you
want to wear like by reaching into like
memories from your childhood
and like stuff like that i thought that
was pretty interesting because it really
is not going with the trends at all it's
going with like
like your own like deepest core memories
and stuff like that i'm not sure if i
would dress like that but i think it's a
pretty interesting concept yeah
and another thing is like you know even
if you um
are
wanting to buy some clothes just dress
up in a certain way how long does that
high last right like how long does the
uh
excitement about the clothes last once
you buy it
i think that's a great question i think
it also ties into fast fashion and micro
trend which are like really short trends
that like get all over the internet and
everybody wants it and then a month
later it's like not cool anymore yeah
people want to fit in they want to go
with the trends they'll buy this these
clothes that aren't going to be like
that they know maybe it's like
an insane color but everybody else is
wearing it so they want to wear it but
the thing is can you wear that like
later down the line that's why when i'm
getting close i try and buy stuff that i
know i can
wear even when it's not trendy anymore
but yeah
okay so you're you are i would say an
environmentally conscious person
i try to be i try to be i try to thrift
instead of just buying from outlets and
stuff yeah nice nice
well i'm glad we talked about this
fashion with teenagers because that is a
really important aspect right for
teenagers even for the mental wellness i
would say right so thank you so much
karis for spending time with us
all right
