It may seem to us, the people, that in our teen years we should be able to express and dress ourselves the way we want, but this privilege to be yourself, and express yourself has it’s faults, and especially for young women in America.

Some of the most common expressions here are: changing our hair color, adding a little touch to our faces, changing our hair length, and dressing differently, for most of us. Although these changes are minor, when a teenage girl walks out of her home with a face full of make-up, tight-fitting clothes, and a purse, society no longer sees a teenager. Some might say, “Well, we live in America; we dress however we please!” But how would it feel if someone dear, like a sister or friend were approached by an older guy, while barely clothed, in a way a teenage girl should never be approached in by a grown man and his excuse is, “She looked old enough!” Now I know that this is not a good excuse, as well as I know many others feel this way about the Julia Berkens case, but I feel like the whole situation could have been avoided if the teenager would have dressed her age. Now I’m not saying that the man should be excused in any way because he shouldn’t be going up to anyone starting a conversation about sex, I just agree that for some teenagers, it’s harder to tell woman from girl.

The bottom line is that when we dress ahead of our time to somehow, present a more mature self to differentiate ourselves from pre-teens, we inevitably put an abrupt ending to our childhood in rush to wear high heels.