Tween Shopping Habits

Read this yesterday in the NY Times Style section.

Yikes.

The article points to a disturbing trend among the 'tween' age bracket of girls, essentially caught between childhood and growing up, who have become a HUGE market for the consumer driven economy of fashion.

I love fashion, I love shopping but I firmly believe that kids ought to be kids. I had that chance as (what I think of) a child (that is 12 and under...tho I would argue more for 13) to climb trees and have tea parties, and essentially still be a kid.

There will be time enough for being grown up when adulthood with all its inescapable responsibilities comes. Young girls should feel free to be kids, for that still brief but precious time before the rat race descends. I feel like the older I get the more I see younger and younger girls trying to look older and older. How has our culture come to this? Dress-up is fine, but young girls need time to be just that; GIRLS.

What do you think? Has commercialization gone too far in creating and marketing fashion to 9 year-olds?

(Image courtesy of The New York Times)