As a high schooler, one of the first things I learned about myself was that my clothes were a direct reflection of who I was and how I felt. I loved expressing myself through the garments I wore and the ways I accessorized them, but it happened way too often that on a trip to the mall or thrift stores with my friends, I’d become enamored with a dress or blouse that I couldn’t wear to the one place where I spent most of my time: school. I looked, and most importantly, FELT awesome in that blouse, but the blouse’s main charm- the way it lightly hung from my shoulders- was its demise in the eyes of the school system. The system told me that showing my shoulders in a formal setting is inappropriate, unprofessional, and distracts boys from their education.

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