Somewhere in America’s suburbs, 16-year-old Blair sits in her pink-walled bedroom and shows off a slew of recent purchases from the fast-fashion chain Forever 21. She bought a black blouse, a slouchy cardigan, and $6.99 jeans. “OK, so normally it would bother me if my jeans didn’t have any detail on the rear end,” Blair says. “But I was actually reading and they say that if there is not any design on the back pocket on your jeans … somehow it makes your butt look smaller. So way to go for these jeans!” - Slate, Why are young women showing off their shopping sprees in online videos called “hauls”?
These videos are like train wrecks. I am trying to watch this one all the way through- at 4:41 she stumbles over the pronunciation of the word “alternatively” for a few seconds (“Alter-native-ly? Alter-nat-ively? K, whatever”), and that’s the best thing so far. But I am fascinated.
You know when you are a kid and you feel like the adults don’t understand you? And you’re always rolling your eyes because they’re like SO OLD they don’t even GET THIS STUFF. I can’t remember a specific instance but only a vague overarching feeling of superiority. Now when I read about 14-year-olds sexting or having elaborate vlogs I feel baffled but also relieved that I totally missed that in my youth, which seems simpler and lovelier every time I read about middle schoolers exchanging pictures of each other’s undeveloped genitals. Adults aren’t sad that they don’t understand what the lives of kids are like, they’re grateful. Because these things? That you do? They are awful.
