Gawker
Lesley Jane Seymour used to edit Marie Claire. The people at Hearst made her stop doing that around this time last year, and now someone else is editing it. Today she wrote a piece for the New York Times metro regionals sections about her 11-year-old daughter Lake and her friends. The piece is about how much the girls love to go shopping, and what they're like when they walk around a fancy mall in Westchester.
The purpose of the article, according to Ms. Seymour, was to "understand why shopping seems to have become an acceptable hobby, even an obsession, among some young girls." It seems like it was fun to write! The girls wear skin-tight jeans. One of them in particular has a pretty shirt. Click through for more information!
The first stop for the ladies is Louis Vuitton, where little Lake notices a white mink stole. "I have to have this!" she yelps, probably like a bat. A little later, the girls see a man carrying a pink bag by Juicy Couture; this makes them excited, and "they start hissing like snakes, cheering, 'Ju-i-ccc-y! Ju-i-ccc-y!'"
A few experts and professors later, the girls jump up and down on massage chairs, and after that, Ms. Seymour starts thinking about what it means to be a tween.
Her conclusions: creatures like Lake and her friends are not quite girls and not quite women. They like brands because it makes them feel like they're part of a club. Also, "the concept of window shopping no longer exists. Going home without a bag is unthinkable. Shopping has become about buying."
All of which makes us wonder: who paid for all the stuff? Are freelancers allowed to expense stuff at the Times?—LEON
RELATED: Weekend 'Times': Fire of My Loins
Comments
Why shopping has become an acceptable hobby for girls - BECAUSE parents allow it and pay for it!!! Duh! Do these teeny consumers know how to ride a bike, play games, take a walk or READ? Marketers couldn't have cloned any better shoppers than these card waving sheep. They look bored and anorexic already.
Shopping for fur at 11...ironic, no?
"Shopping has become about buying."
Upon reading that sentence, the skies above me suddenly cleared up and a shaft of brilliant golden light shone on me. It was as if the heavens had opened up and absolute, indisputable truth had revealed itself to me.
Truly, Leslie Jane Seymour is in possession of the Secret of the Universe.
Is Leslie Jane already planning Lake's Super Sweet 16 orgy/LV sponsored clusterfuck?
At 11, it's Leslie Jane's responsibility to empower her daughter. Jeez, drop her off at the library or sign her up for a dance class.
Awwww, look everyone, isn't my increasingly vapid daughter just A-dorable?!?!
Soup kitchen? No. Animal shelter? Nope. Reading to underprivileged kids? Please. Collecting donations for those less fortunate? Are you kidding! No, we're going to spend a day at the mall engaging in rampant consumerism!
"...probably like a bat."
Thanks. Gawk, you are a fabulous end to a fabulous weekend. :: Sigh ::
What kind of parents name a kid Lake?
Jesus Christ. They're generation is going to be filled with mindless brand-effing douche-bags. Ok I guess mine isn't that much better.
Seriously, this scares me. I better be healthy til I drop dead because these little girls are not going to be able to Spell feeding tube let alone insert one.
Yuck.
And where is the mother's "Whoa, what the hell am I instilling in my kid?" reaction. I mean Shit!
@Koala325:
the same sort of assholes who think it's okay to take an 11-year-old girl shopping at Louis Vuitton.
and i hate to break it to Ms. Seymour, the rocket scientist, but tween + teen girls have been 'obsessed' with shopping since the beginning of time.
I have a bat screeching tween at home.
My answer to the insistence whining about the need for clothes and shopping is a resounding NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!
She is none to pleased, so more screeching is expected.
Ah Marie Claire, for (future) women of style and substance (abuse). Girls this age have always tried to redefine themselves via clothing. The result is a character test; do they choose to be interesting or do they choose like a heifer in a dairy line. All signs point to mooo.
Hey Mommy- Learn to say NO.
At 11 we got freakin' Traxx at K-Mart and even that was packed with "and don't you go tearing these apart just to get a new pair".
Screeching would have gotten us sent to the car and allowed my mom to decide for herself what we were going to wear all year.
tweens = twats of tomorrow
Growing up poor may have a lot of drawbacks (like government cheese), but I wouldn't trade my broke-ass, Goodwill-wearing, ghetto-living, Valu City-shopping childhood for anything.
This explains Alec Baldwin's behavior to his 11 year-old daughter. Perfectly. If someone can call out a selfish pig spawn, it might as well be a spoiled parent.
@HotChocolate: you couldnt have said it better!. I cant begin to think what that next generation is gonna be like
I'm glad she's at least trying to make sense of why her daughter and her friends are such empty-headed consumerist no-neck monsters.
Just be glad you don't have to date these girls. Or marry them. Or get divorced from them. Or fight over the rotten little spawn that they'll turn against you with your own Visa card.
As commenter Pigfoot once said, "Therefore, because capitalism requires the creation of an unstable adolescent identity that empowers young people as consumers but isolates them from the spheres of work and politics, 'hot/hot/gross' is the new 'duck/duck/goose.'" Pigfoot was shot in the cellar of the Lubjanka during the Great Purge of
Yeah, so anyway... Pigfoot was executed during a purge because he didn't kiss the ass of a fashion correspondent. You know, one of those writers who gets people to buy shit at the mall. There's some irony in here somewhere, but I've already had breakfast.
My, I didn't realize there were so many up-from-the-streets, don't-talk-back-to-mama folks with such fabulous parenting skills who ALSO have an abiding interest in Manhattan news, gossip, and drugs. New York is truly a marvelous place!
@HotChocolate: Right on, I just did it in white trash rural America, but government cheese knows no boundaries.
The thing that upset me the most is that I know EXACTLY where in the Westchester Mall they are. Ahh, self-knowledge...
...decked out in the suburban tween girl uniform, almost head-to-toe Abercrombie: skin-tight jeans and layered T-shirts,skin-tight jeans…
...tanks so thin they often come with holes already in them and skin-tight jeans that curvier teenagers can't squeeze into...
While my daughter and two friends tried on their skinny jeans and T-shirts in Abercrombie's fitting rooms…
Ok we get it Leslie Jane Seymour, you're not raising a fatty. Don't you have a Dr. Quinn reuinon to get to or something?
i honestly think girls these days are just skipping over the whole awkward stage and going straight to slut
There's nothing sexier than an 11 year old with "Juicy" spelled out across her Easy Bake Oven.
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