Help for Parents of Struggling Teens

Looking for a teen help program?

Call (866) 845-1390

Fat Camp
Learn about why fat camps don’t work and why the new healthy weight loss camps are so much more effective. more >>

Featured Programs

New Leaf AcademyNew Leaf Academy
Do you fear your daughter is growing up too quickly? Even young children are constantly exposed to confusing messages about how to act and who they should be. As a parent, you may feel overwhelmed by the many influences competing for your child's attention. At Leaf Academy of Oregon, your daughter will benefit from our educational philosophy that seeks to develop the whole person: socially and emotionally as well as academically. Through the Star Steps Program, girls learn to accept rules and responsibility for their behavior. They develop a sense of self and strong boundaries that will help them make the right choices as they move into adolescence and young adulthood.

Learn more about New Leaf Academy >>

Middle School "Fashion Police" Demand Designer Clothing

"Fashion bullying" or the teasing and tormenting of girls who do not wear clothes acceptable to their peers is becoming more prevalent in middle schools, according to an October 25 report in the Wall Street Journal. Educators and psychologists are responding to the problem by setting up new programs to teach girls that they do not have to define themselves by the clothes they wear.

The problem is getting worse as more high-end designers introduce clothing for preteens and children. Celebrities dressing their offspring in designer labels are influencing the trend. Madonna's daughter Lourdes and even Tom Cruise's baby have become fashion icons in celebrity tabloids.

Marc Jacobs already offers "Little Marc," and there are junior versions of Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Michael Kors, Dolce & Gabbana, Armani, Burberry, and Coach. This spring Chloe, Missoni and Alberta Ferretti will launch children's labels. Boutiques like Cantaloup Kids and Scoop Kids now specialize in designer clothing for children

In many schools, the girls with the most expensive clothing achieve automatic status and popularity. Dorothy Espelage, a professor of educational psychology at the University of Illinois/Urbana, has studied teen culture for 14 years. She said that designer clothing gives girls "the opportunity to become popular - and that protects you and gives you social power and leverage over others."

A national conference on "Relationship Aggression, Mean Girls and Other Forms of Bullying" held in Las Vegas this June included workshops that focused on how the media pressures girls to buy these kinds of clothes, why clothes become part of their identity, and why fashion bullying is occurring at all socio-economic levels.

Professor Susan Swearer of the University of Nebraska found that the problem is ongoing even in the poorest schools, where girls own only a few expensive items of clothing. However, they wear them over again and over again to appease the "fashion police."

Many of the teachers involved in anti-bullying programs now include lessons about fashion bullying. "Club Orphelia" and "Camp Orphelia" are extracurricular programs based on the work of psychologist Cheryl Dellasega to help girls relate to each other in a positive way. Developmental Resources, an educational firm, now offers "Mean Girls" workshops for teachers. "Hardy Girls Healthy Women" is a non-profit organization with after-school programs on the East Coast that help girls examine media messages and build healthy friendships not based on fashion choices.

Return to the Teen Help Directory >>