Backstage

This article was written by Johnell Smalls

Looking back at pictures of when we were younger, the unfortunate fashion trends that we followed make us ask, “What the hell?” We start to wonder if polka dot really was the best choice in the store and why mom brought us light-up shoes. While parents seem to have the final say in dressing their children, the vote can be swayed by a screaming kid wanting the ugliest thing on the rack. However, some parents manage to dress their children in the most bizarre fashion even without the persistent kid.

We’ve all seen the pictures of celebrities and their kids. Here comes Mel B of the Spice Girls in workout gear with her precious three year old daughter, Angel tagging along behind her with a funky haircut. She wears a mohawk similar to her mom’s. Sure, Scary Spice knows and understands why she wants a mohawk but how about her three year? Angel hadn’t seen her mom with it, would she have wanted one? If a celebrity mom looks fab, why shouldn’t her child look just as comparable? But unlike her mother’s hair, little Angel’s hair looks as if it has not been properly treated and it just sticks up like a dry shark fin.

Another parent who receives backlash from gossip sites for dressing her daughter in a bizarre form is actress Angelina Jolie. She admitted recently in the August Issue of Vanity Fair Magazine that her daughter Shiloh wants to be a boy. This is why the young girl’s hair is cut very short and dresses like a boy. Angelina told the magazine. “She think she’s one of the guys.” So when is it okay to draw the line and explain to your child that little girls should wear dresses or is it okay at all? Angelina said she wants to embrace her children and the choices they make.

Daughter of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett, Willow is another kid with weird fashion. Lately she has been seen wearing very rockish clothes that really with clashing animal prints. Being older than Angel and Shiloh, she most likely puts these outfits together herself without her mom’s help. So when should Jada sit Willow down and explain that her choices lack fashion? With such fashionable parents like the Smiths, fashion critics were surprised to see her at her brother’s movie premiere. She too has a mohawk like Angel and dresses in patterns that do not match. On a poll taken from Washington Post, 42 percent of 1720 voters said she was a cute girl but the outfit was “ick-nast.”

Angelina and Mel B both have daughters who are young and their fashion sense can shape their opinion for the rest of their lives. Do we really want a little girl growing up with the impression that it’s okay to think that she’s a boy? Children are too young to make these decisions. Children may want to explore dressing up and picking clothes for themselves but parents should definitely interfere at times.