Although this trend doesn't appear to be harmful, I believe it can be very dangerous because it creates a look that girls are expected to conform to, or otherwise be viewed as an outsider or different. As human beings, we love to feel as part of a group or like others; this is incredibly important to our mental well-being and thus, people will go out of their way to blend into the crowd. With the creation of this VSCO girl trend, we are telling people that there is a specific way to look and stripping them of individuality. It takes away peoples' ability to wear what they want, when they want for fear of being judged, and this can have numerous negative affects. This contributes to already strong social pressures not to stand out or vary from the norm, and can be a source of unnecessary stress.
This trend, however harmless it may appear to be, underlines an issue surrounding the culture among young Americans and serves to demonstrate unhealthy beliefs in our society.
As a teenager who has seen this trend grow and take over many of my peers and friends, I can say that though it may seem harmless, there are definitely downsides to it. While there is no harm to girls wearing shell necklaces and crocs, the issue comes with girls becoming materialistic and hooked on certain items.
I can say from experience that materialism can be toxic, and cause us to become obsessed with brand names and specific items just to conform perfectly to whatever trend is going around. I do not believe that the VSCO girl trend is all bad. If girls want to dress that way, then we should let them, but once they start becoming over-materialistic, they enter a cycle where they become corrupted and spoiled.
As a teen, I know a lot about the VSCO girl trend. Vsco girls are mainly a joke to me. I do own a hydro flask, crocs, scrunchies ect but I don't do it for the sense of the trend. Personally they are just products that I like or think look good. I agree with the ideas the writer gives to parents on how to question us about this trend such as be curious not judgemental because we dont mean harm by this trend and for most of us this trend is not serious its primarily a joke.
1
While I agree that the VSCO trend is relatively harmless, I'm surprised there's zero mention of either the race or socioeconomic class components of being a VSCO girl in this article, especially in the "right" way to look section. All these years after Morrison's The Bluest Eye, and we still haven't broadened what the "right" way to look is beyond white-dominant beauty ideals. I look forward to a day when girls will navigate adolescence with all its perennial challenges around belonging and identity, but within a society in which we have a multiplicity of "right ways" to look.
1
@Tracy It's also going to be a trend that works way better with the long-legged and slender crowd. However, it's nice that it's a trend that tweens can follow where the clothing they wear doesn't sexualize them in a way that they're not necc. ready for.
2
What's the big deal? Harmless fun.
I promise you in 80-90s growing up in NJ/NYC you were a LOSER if you bought a pair of shoes anyone else already had. You needed to be first and be original and rock it right. You searched and bought clothes out of town to make sure nobody showed up with the same clothes. This is just silly and sad. This is the difference between style and fashion. These kids have no style, instead they follow fashion. Style and fashion are mutually exclusive. Its that simple. Are you a strong woman leader, or are you a wandering sheep?
2
Seems to me that’s just another “right way to dress.”
2
Teenagers like to follow trends and have a sense of belonging? Big whoop (to quote a previous teen gen): What demographic doesn't? They have their own "language" (limited lexicon and altered grammar) - this is literally true of every geographical region, professional occupation, academic discipline, age group, social group, and field of endeavor.
This is a self-help solution in painfully self-conscious search of a problem.
I always appreciate telling my teenage VSCO girl patients that they dress exactly like I did when I was their age, in the mid90s, with Birks, oversized t-shirts, athletic short shorts, and scrunchies along with most of the rest (in our case, sub in neoprene bottle for hydro flask). I just love to see the dawning horror in their faces when they realize that this old person in front of them, in fact, is not kidding. :)
5
My daughter loves Billie Eilish and that is so cool, Yes to oversized tees and to girls and women defining what is cool for themselves.
2
I’m a mother of two girls who are crazy about this trend, they talk about it all the time... What bothers me it’s all the consumerism and promotion of very specific high end brands. I can afford to get them hydroflasks but I believe that is absolutely ridiculous to pay $40 for a water bottle.
4
I learned about VSCO girls about 6 weeks ago and now my 11-year-old daughter informs me they are already passé (I figured it might be once the NYT reported on it.)
Social trends that have a lifespan of weeks is one reason to pass on investing in them.
6
What makes you think anyone learns to think for themselves? It's a very rare phenomenon, and often quite painful. As Schopenhauer said, “We forfeit three-fourths of ourselves in order to be like other people.” For most people, that's a pretty good deal.
4
This was basically me when I was a tween, without the metal straw, and also without any degree of coolness. Alas.
5
Not a mom so maybe someone needs to explain to me why scrunchies, oversized t-shirts, Hydroflasks and reusable metal straws are concerning. Sounds like how my college freshman niece dressed all summer. Yah that she drinks water and isn’t vaping. This article is the very definition of first-world problem.
12
Sounds better than the 80s Valley Girl trend which was like, totally fer sure all about mall materialism. Gag me with a spoon.
5
There could be many more objectionable trends your teenaged daughter (or son) follows. It’s a joke in our house, and we have lots of scrunches and hydroflasks. Sksskssks!!!
1
My daughter has all these items - I guess she is a vsco
1
@Deirdre I personally also own all these items but I am not a VSCO girl so im curious to see if your daughter thinks she is a vsco girl as well. She may just like these brands as I do. Vsco girls are not characterized as the nicest people and tend to dress that way for attention so I wonder if your daughter is VSCO or just likes the brands.
Guess what? Children do not have to grow up influenced by television and social media. I have a healthy, happy, imaginative little boy who’s never even requested “screen time.” He sings songs, reads books, rides a bike, plays with his kitty, and pesters his parents. It is the parents who introduce screens to children in a misguided effort to control behavior. It doesn’t take long for the child to get hooked on the electronic stimulation. Use quickly becomes abuse. As a high school teacher I know the intellectual brain damage created by internet devices. The children have no real childhoods and are “burned out” by all the uncensored information overwhelming the developing brain.
3
My daughter might have been one of the first vsco girls. In June, my then 12 year old daughter started an account on TikTok with the username “girlsofvsco” and within a week she gained over 30,000 followers. Her first video, a montage of hydroflasks and Birkenstock’s has 1.2 million views. Maintaining the account became her summer job, and we were courted by influencer management companies who, to be honest, didn’t quite know what to make of it all. We attempted to drive traffic to Instagram, per their suggestion. After about a month she relinquished the username without telling me (I haven’t the heart to tell her it was probably worth thousands of dollars), and she claimed that it was boring her. Now she’s just a 12 year old who occasionally posts TikToks just like any other kid, except she has 33,000 followers who don’t care.
Well, I’m flummoxed as to how this is a problem. They write columns about the stuff I did back in the ‘70s but we won’t go there, eh?
2
Guess VSCO may be harmless, but then we thought that about Facebook, didn't we?
1
I remember shopping for clothes when my kids were young and being horrified by the midriff baring crop tops and age inappropriate clothing in the girls clothing section. Parents should be overjoyed if their tween girl wants to wear oversized tees, scrunchies, and shell bracelets.
15
This story makes no sense. Why would any parent worry if a teenager wanted to follow a trend? They were once teens themselves and did precisely the same thing.
29
@Laurence Bachmann My thoughts precisely. But I'd go further: we're still doing it. No trends = no culture. Human interaction is all about repetition and variation.
1
Great point here: “no trends = no culture.” As trends go, the “VSCO girl” one is not such a bad one. A trend toward environmental responsibility, and clothing for young women that doesn’t reduce them to mere sex objects? Yes, please. Our culture needs more of that.
4
my 12 year old son in 7th grade has friends who are wearing scrunchies and carrying turtle stickered water bottles. These friends are boys. One even went as a VSCO girl for halloween.
I spent some time with my son a couple of months ago having him explain to me what the deal is. A NYT article at the time brought it into focus. I'm 53 and learn something new every day.
7
This article treats scrunchies and reusable straws like a case of reefer madness. Don't get it.
27
Seriously, why would any mom be worried about this? No matter what decade you grew up in, there were trends. And as far as trends go, this one seems pretty harmless. Big t-shirts, hair scrunchies (you need to put long hair up somehow), inexpensive necklaces and bracelets, crocs, a metal straw that costs $10 for a few.
In the 1980s, it was designer jeans, that cost a lot more then than this stuff costs now -- and that's *before* you factor in inflation.
Also, it's stuff where tween girls look like tween girls and not twenty-somethings dolled up for a night out at a club. Parents should be delighted.
This seems like a lot of hand-wringing about nothing.
46
There could be far worse trends than this. As a parent of both a 17 and 9 year old daughter, I’ll take the sweet innocence of giant T-shirt’s, environmental awareness, and silly sayings. Never mind the fact that as a mid-40s parent, I was OG VSCO, we just didn’t have a word for it then.
15
@AreYouKiddingMe I’m trying to decide whether VSC-OG or VSCO Crone is the better way to describe our generation.
1
Yes to metal straws! Yes to reusable water bottles!
Plastic is a curse on the earth.
11
Talk about a first world problem! If this is your only parental worry count yourself very lucky.
17
So glad scrunchies are back. I never stopped wearing them. Now I"m hip again.
8
Everybody goes through this to one degree or another. Bobby-socks, saddle shoes and poodle skirts, black t-shirts with the sleeves rolled up, capri pants, leather jackets, jean jackets, embroidered jeans, jeans with big holes in the knees, peasant blouses, macrame vests, granny glasses, Beatle haircuts, long hair, Afros, shaved heads, love beads, Twiggy eyelashes, bright red lipstick, pale pink lipstick, cartoon-character t-shirts, mini-skirts, maxi-skirts, shiny white boots, sideburns, neon colors, earth tones, blue hair, pink hair, purple hair, spiky hair, piercings, tattoos, Emo attire, cargo pants.... We all had our costumes. Fads and fashions come and go. Nothing to be alarmed about. This, too, will pass.
15
Aw, little hippies—mostly harmless. Leave them alone.
Also sounds like this is aimed at parents who feel left out. Too bad—get your own life.
6
Since when do teens rebel because their parents ASK them to? Silly.
I rebeled from the status quo as a teen and fell in with one of the various stereotypical weird kid groups. My parents were rebels in their own way and modeled it themselves.
If you want your kid to aim for outside the status quo, don't be the status quo yourself. If you are, then hopefully they'll just rebel against you like 90% of typical teens.
1
If this is the worst thing your tween girl wants to do you are lucky.......
14
I suggest every parent, really any adult, read Naomi Kleins seminal book, NoLogo. It will break down the rise of Branding, and how it sucks teens and adults of all ages, into its money grabbing webs of Corp (large or small) advertizing propagandizing machinery. Using social consciousness and celebrity attachments as one of many tools. It was written pre the rise of social media, yet remains wholly relevant.
Parents, your money is being sought not just thru direct marketing aimed at you...but very much thru marketing targeting your children. To get to your money by way of getting your young children hooked on their Branding schemes. "But moooom!"
Also, you should look at your own behaviors. Being Brand conscious, to a fault, or what in todays world is too often a fetish is very often passed from parent to child. Ive laughed too many times when friends who are Brand obsessed wonder why their kids are suddenly asking for things like those mentioned in this article. Their lack of self awareness is astounding. You raised the little Brand gobbler to be like you! If X is a new It thing, you get it. If your friends and neighbors get Z...you get it, or maybe Z on steroids.
Being tuned in to how Corps and various other entities, especially thru Social Media, works to earn your loyalty and as a result your money often for their doing nothing much at all, is critical in this day, and going forward. In fact, it should be a curriculum taught in schools for children and adults.
9
Patiently explain to her that ASMR was soooo last year.
Even the Kardashians are doing it now.
I can't believe these clueless adults. Most of the VSCO girls are precisely a parody of the style idiots they are making fun of. The "Save the turtles" is a parody of the superficial pseudo-environmental posturing by Instagram Hollywood types. Same with the 'Hydroflask' bottle users. Same with the fake Third-World touchy-feely bracelets. That's why it's a Halloween costume. Not to admire but to make fun of the brainless 'Valley-Girl' types. My 10 year-old daughter and her friends think it's hysterical and stupid, not a "style" to be copied. Memo to mom: IT'S A JOKE!
Maybe your kid sees it as a joke and gets her kicks out of mocking people, but my daughter—who was a fan of big T-shirts and reusable water bottles long before “VSCO girls” became a thing—is now majoring in biology and environmental science and is actually working to do some good in the world. Maybe you could help your kid dig into some of the positive aspects of the trend instead of encouraging her cynicism?
5
Am I the only one who found it strange the daughter needs her mother’s permission to spend her own allowance money on a particular item (let alone a completely innocuous one such as a bracelet)? Doesn’t that negate the entire point of having an allowance?
25
If it has to be bought online and her daughter, like mine, cannot make purchases online without permission because it is being made through my credit card, then yes, a type of permission has to happen. I let my daughter buy whatever she wants with her allowance but if it is an online purchase than she has to ask me to do it and then she pays me the balance from her allowance. I don’t just hand her my credit card and the internet and say, “have at it.” That is why this article is helpful. Selling trendy stuff to teens is not new. I am sure my Madonna lace gloves are out there somewhere, but doing it through the Internet ups the game in a way that needs new approaches for parents to teach their kids about responsible consumerism and to be aware when they are being manipulated and marketed to. That’s all this article is trying to say. And with teen girls it is especially tricky because it is built on a history of fashion and beauty marketing that is especially destructive to girls’ self-esteem. As a parent you do have to weigh in on that. VSCO is a passing fad and fairly harmless (my daughter has definitely bought into it and it is something I know she will laugh at doing someday) but that doesn’t mean I don’t need to teach her the wider lessons of living and thriving in a hyper-consumer culture.
3
Conforming to cultural norms is normal for people of all ages.
Even people saying today they all want "more experiences than stuff" is just part of people conforming to the travel industry, like buying diamond rings for wedding (and having expensive weddings), owning McMansions, wearing jeans/t-shirts/suits/dresses/skirts/etc.
3
If conforming means following a trend that celebrates environmental activism, photography, thrifted clothes, and healthy living, maybe we should all conform a little more.
34
My only problem is when I see groups of twenty to thirty year-old women (and men) all wearing trend-oid "uniforms." I mean really people, haven't you figured this stuff out yet?
10
“Is a brand really the most important part of your identity or the way you want to signal who you are?” If you say it this way to your daughter, as one of the quoted doctors seems to recommend, you will not be starting a conversation or having a teachable moment. You will, though, have a daughter who thinks you’re judgmental and impossible to talk with.
23
Sksksk does not mean "oh my god." It's the sound of someone laughing.
8
@addiebundren That's the sound of laughter?
2
Psssst....ASMR is over too....now it's just called "aesthetic"....
(trying to keep track)
1
This is a cute trend; I'd be happy to parent a VSCO girl and, at 69, find I frequently almost nail this look.
29
My daughter was a VSCO girl fro Halloween which was not very difficult since it didn't seem to differ from the way she always dresses (or most of the other girls at her school.) I of course had no idea that she was dressing in any particular style - Crocs - always her choice for sailing, water bottle - ubiquitous due to sports, scrunchie - ditto sports. I'm fine with a little bit of wanting to fit in with the crowd when its some fashion items. Sure beats the relentless pursuit of drugs and sex that my peers engaged in at school.
13
Why is it so difficult to just let teen girls do what they want to do? There are many trends in middle and high schools that boys follow without ridicule or criticism, and those can be a lot more harmful then letting girls wear scrunchies.
44
Clothes and accessories are such a small part of who we are. By worrying that your child is too matchy-matchy (and reflecting that worry in your conversations) you are validating their importance and centrality to girlhood. If you want to encourage her to think critically and deeply and develop good values, focus on discussing that with her. Navel gazing about her thoughts on VSCO trends only gives them more weight.
9
Why does anyone think "VSCO Girls" is an issue, aside from a general attitude that anything popular among young women should be sneered at? My son and all of his male friends dress almost exclusively in athletic clothing, some of it expensive brand-specific stuff, and no one get on their case for being conformist.
67
A friend's teen son recently started high school and came home wanting (claiming he "needs to have") a couple of heavy gold chains to wear, as this is a common way for guys to signal and attract a certain kind of popularity.
That, and a bunch of other stuff, all leading to a certain style tattoo. My friend worried about whom the boy was trying to attract and that with or without the $$$$ chains, basketball shoes, tattoo and so on he would get pushed around by others either during school because he didn't have the right stuff (actual stuff) or outside or after of school because he did.
Shouldn't we be teaching our kids that what brand clothing or shoes one wears or whether jewelry is or is not 24k or whether or not they have a pierced tongue or whatever is not what's most important in people or in life?
It's fine to want to fit in and it's fine to appreciate a certain aesthetic, but we all, including parents, need to be aware and sensitive to how over-focused tweens, teens, and - yes - their adults can get on such things and how that over-focus can harm not just themselves, but also others around. How does it impact their friends or young neighbors when yet another peer falls for the marketers' ploys to get them believing a certain look or gadget determines one's worth?
I appreciate hearing from a mom willing to pause and consider what messages her kids get & express via a certain kind of mindless materialism parts of our society (wrongly) encourage as anesthesia.
8
@L. Clark : Indeed. And this VSCO Girls trend seems more financially accessible than the expensive brand-name athletic wear.
7
@L. Clark Boys are so apt to be conformist it is rather strange we chastise our girls for it. I especially enjoyed the trend of a few years ago, where every piece of clothing had to have a bit of the same neon, sometime down to the socks and shoelaces. Was certainly more of a Look than VSCO girls. And expensive.
Personally, I think pushing a girl to buck trends is a hold over of insuring your daughter is marriage worthy. She needs to stand out in a crowd, but only *just* enough to be noticed (aka Cinderella in an amazing dress that sets her apart). Smart enough to toss trends aside so she can stand out to that prince charming, but not so fashion clueless that she becomes invisible.
5
Or you could encourage your daughter to just be herself. Fads don't seem very authentic when consumerism is thrown into the equation.
2
The writer should read Jezebel's piece on the VSCO girl and her predecessors throughout the 20th C. Yes, teenage trends and trend following are totally normal. (I remember my JNCOs and doc martins in high school.) Also, adults do this too. Why do all the women in Brooklyn have the same clogs? Same idea.
17
@Kas Yoga pants!
1
I'm a 39 year old father of two, and I wear birkenstocks, drink out of a hydroflask bottle, and own a set of reusable metal straws for my family to drink out of. I bought my kids hydroflask bottles because I think they are a good value. I also distinctly remember wearing a puka shell necklace 20+ years ago when I was in high school. I feel as trends go this one is pretty innocuous.
I honestly feel like this article is a little sexist. I mean I get wanting to talk to your kids about their media consumption, I absolutely agree with that. But this feels like the equivalent of a woman being mad she has the same dress on as someone else at a party while all the men are dressed exactly the same. Do we expect girls to stand out from each other while we value boys for being members of a team and conforming to a standard?
It is interesting how there's an increasing interconnectedness between media consumption, media output, how you look and the lifestyle you (at least want to appear) to follow.
54
@Richard : Exactly. It *is* sexist. Thanks for saying so!
Also, it's more like the moms are upset that *their* daughters are showing up in the same "dress" as their peers.
6
To anyone who has been through the slime craze with their kids, they know that things change (apparently the madness for slime ended the day I purchased a gallon of glue). My daughter went through a whole Pura Vida phase a couple of years ago...she still wears a few of her favorites, but most have been forgotten or lost. She enjoys her boxy oversize tees, mom jeans, and white trainers (though bristles at the label of "VSCO girl"). I have no idea what she'll want to wear tomorrow, by Christmas, or next year. Shefeels good about herself and presents herself as age appropriate. I don't think it's a big deal...I had my own version with acid washed jeans tucked into white socks with Keds (shudder!).
About the HydroFlask...we got her one and she liked it so much that I got one for myself. She appreciated my willingness to buy off her recommendation and it's a lot better than the plastic bottle I'd been using!
11
As far as trends go, this one is far less annoying than much of what's out there. I'd rather have her believe she's saving turtles by wearing a bracelet, than want to dress and talk like a Kardashian. There are some hidden opportunities in this one, like expanding on the turtles thing, or why metal straws are indeed important. Even after the fad is over, the metal straw use and the concern for the environment can live on as part of her awareness and attitude towards the natural world.
What I do have more of an issue with, and what is at the core of this article, isn't so much the trend itself, as the following of a trend in general. And how nowadays that's easier than ever because of smart phones. There's more pressure than there ever has been. That's what I find frustrating. Maybe especially because I was always a rebel and as an adolescent, I took pride in NOT following the stupid trends at school. So the prospect of my still young daughter buying after everything she sees and hears in a few short years is pretty frustrating and disappointing to me. I'll keep this advice in mind and hope we can navigate those years together without our bond suffering. And I hope she keeps her own mind and identity as much as possible in the process.
9
Doesn't sound so different from the surf shorts, baggy t-shirts and skater clothes boys wanted when I was that age in the late 80s early 90s. About 30 years late, right on time for recycling the echos of fashion from the previous generation.
Ms. Aston, did you really just now hear about ASMR videos? Enjoy! :)
4
Wasn't it Marie Antoinette who said, "There is nothing new, except what's been forgotten,"?
Wait, I thought Crocs were out. Last year I found out that plaid flannel shirts were in again and the geezer shirts that I have been wearing for the last two decades suddenly (and perhaps briefly) made me cool (or whatever the word for cool is now). My advice - wear what you like, it will be periodically fashionable.
17
The quote at the end of the article nails it. By the time grown ups even recognize a kid’s trend it’s already over. We are saving the oversized sweatshirts for when they hit high school and are then normal size sweatshirts. Hydroflasks are decent enough thermoses which we won’t replace when they inevitably lose them. As for the rest, I say if you can afford to do it let your kids follow all the trends they want to. Conforming to nonconformity is still conforming.
9
We all, regardless of age, signal our memberships to social groups and much of that takes place through consumption choices. The clothes we wear and cars we drive and what we put our groceries in (paper, plastic, a New Yorker tote) aren't just functional, they're props. They tell people who we are. Kids are just a bit more obvious about it.
If you're not asking your child questions from a place of genuine curiosity--if you're asking only so that you can poke holes in the identity or make some moral point--don't bother.
28
I just recently learned about VSCO girls from my daughter (13).
Amusing and a little foreign to me, but is this really any different from back in the day when everyone had to have Izod shirts, Fair Isle sweaters and Bermuda bags?
70
You mean the bad-ol' days?
I remember countless girls who didn't fit the straight, blond hair, skinny & hip-less look, and/or the large parental bank account to afford Izod products etc. either ruining their hair or bodies or physical and mental health, or parents forgoing food in order to afford an Izod shirt -- or doing all of the above -- just to try to fit in, to avoid or ease some of the unrelenting shaming and other forms and layers of bullying that such fads engender and that product marketers and unthinking (or themselves bullying) parents facilitate and exploit or do precious little to discourage.
I'm glad I and others survived those times and dynamics. I wouldn't wish them on anyone, least of all today's girls. And I wouldn't minimize the lasting harm such materialistic values and dynamics can cause.
11
With all the things we need to be concerned about assailing and influencing our children, this one should be in the basement. Really? Perhaps looking like Twiggy (she may or may not have been anorexic), vaping, early onset of premarital sex and introductions to alcohol and drugs might be way more of an issue.
If it is supposed to be cool to be VSCO (i.e.the Birkenstocks, water bottles, metal straws, whatever) ...then go for it. HOWEVER, remember when kids talked and played instead of being controlled by apps? Do tweens and teens REALLY need 24-7 access to any app?
42
My 10 year old son has been terribly confused by VSCO girls, and whether there was something particularly special about HydroFlask bottles that saved turles. I doubt many VSCO girls have much more clarity on the subject :)
I explained it as a confluence of trendiness and outward signs of group identification with the general consumerist belief that problems caused by consumption can be solved by more consumption.
Until this article I thought it was just something at his school!
24
@Clotario
Exactly correct. This fad is just another attempt to convince malleable kids to buy stuff to fit in. Tomorrow it will be something else, but the stuff will endure in a landfill somewhere for a long, long time.
4
You have quite the savvy ten year old!
2
@Clotario since having kids (16 years ago) I find I'm truly amazed at the way fads spread across the country. Stretchy bracelets in the shape of animals and superheroes; fidget spinners, bottle flipping, Fortnite dances, VSCO girls, e-boys... I'm forgetting so many, I'm sure. My kids will be into it, and so will the children of friends in Arizona, Wisconsin, Virginia. Many of these happened before social media, or at least before my kids were aware of social media... but they spread like wildfire and enjoy a brief moment in the spotlight. I always think of those 'You know you grew up in the xxxx's' quizzes and the shared experiences this generation is enjoying. Not quite as 'cringe-y' as many of the ones we tested out.
2