Clothes of today: to express or to impress?That is the question....

Yaryna 
(a pupil of the secondary school) 

Have you ever wanted to dye your hair green? Do you remember that feeling? Do you remember what your feelings were when you decided to buy oversized printed hoodie or ripped jeans?Why would you ever consider buying these clothes? You might have thought it is a great way to express yourself but is it absolutely true? Or maybe your goal was  to impress others....

 

In modern society people feel more free to choose what they like to wear in  comparison with last generations. Although it has already  become a new trend and a norm to wear unisex clothes people, teenagers in particular, who prefer gender-neutral things may face different  challenges such as  quarrels and arguments with parents and bullying at school. Such things are definitely very negative because they can often lead to different psychological disorders: people may feel lonely, depressed or even lost. The youngsters who suffer from such problems need support so it is extremely important to discuss everything properly with your opponents in order to find a common ground and to prevent yourself from getting sick or even getting crazy. 

It is quite common that many teenagers treat their weird appearances first of all as the way to express their true feelings and to some extent their identities, while psychologists claim that the problem may be more  serious than we could even imagine.They believe that weird outfits are an explicit manifestation of “calling for help”, because in most cases people with strange or eccentric clothes style may be suffering from the lack of attention in relationships with their friends or even families. They all try to compensate it somehow and they become desperate to draw attention by dying their hair, making tattoos and getting their bodies pierced. They do it not only to exress themselves but first of all to impress people to experience the feeling of necessity and importance or to hide their pain. The greatest example of such a person, who experienced such psychological problems is a famous singer Billie Eilish. Once she said that the reason she dyed  her hair green and wore oversized clothes was that she had difficult times studying at school, her constant depressions, her stereotypes about the figure and the death of her close friend. In this way she wanted to make her fans discuss her clothes rather than different complexes and psychological problems she had, because such negative things made her feel uncomfortable and awkward. What is more, she wanted all her followers to find  more sense in the messages she put in her songs. 

However,  can some particular style of clothes really help us solve our mental health problems? It cannot obviously. Sometimes such approach may even result in more frequent depressions and feelings of loneliness and abandonment. But if teenagers do want to get rid of some  psychological problems, the first thing they should do is to try to talk to their parents and relatives. Though many youngsters believe that their parents are unfashionable and a bit “out of date”, they can give us a valuable piece of advice which will help us avoid being  aggressive and depressed. If it doesn’t work in this way or you don’t have any people to have an open-hearted conversation  with, there are a lot of youth centres of help in Ukraine where children can get support from other people who have similar promlems. 

Additionally, think about what happens when you grow up. Sometimes  it happens that the choice of clothes is connected with the lifestyle and may have some particular consequences in the future. For example women, who prefer manly outfits are said to be more independent and self-confident than others. They had better  earn money rather than raise kids  or do household chores such as cooking, doing the tiding up or ironing in the future. While men who are fond of more female clothing and enjoy wearing  make up or polish their nails might feel less muscular and courageous.   

To summarize, I would like to emphasize that it is vital to spend as much time as possible together with those people, who are lost and “call for help” by wearing weird clothes. Both parents and friends should be attentive and supportive. Talking and being sincere is the only right way to find a common ground, reach a compromise when problems occur and avoid misunderstanding. Parents should not criticize their children, instead of that they should try to find out the proper ways to help them to go through difficult times. As for kids it is very important to stop being afraid of everything and everyone. Both adolescents and youngsters will feel happy and satisfied. Isn't it what we all so desperately need? I am sure it is.