Not all girls, little or not, identify with what fashion considers “normal” for girls, so siblings Laura Burns, Sharon Burns Choksi, and David Burns collaborated to create Girls Will Be , a clothing line for the girls who don’t want all the “girly” stuff.
According to CNN , cousins Maya Choksi, 8, and Grace Gericke, 10, decided early on that they didn’t like girls clothing on store shelves.
“When she was 3 years old, Maya, now 8, rejected the “rainbow in her closet” and decided she didn’t like wearing dresses, her mother says.
“A few years ago, Grace, 10, was so turned off by the tiny shorts in the girls department that she would only wear clothes from the boys section.”
Today went on to say that Choksi decided that waiting for someone else to come up with better choices for girls clothing wasn’t getting her, or her daughter, anywhere.
It was then that the Austin-based mom called her siblings, Laura Burns, a graphic designer in St. Louis, and David Burns, an architect in Chicago, and explained her idea.
When all three siblings came to an agreement, they got to work coming up with their designs, their message and even creating their website.
“It was just really fun working on the branding, logo, and the messaging, and building a website. It was really fun to do it because I am passionate about it,” Choksi says.
“It is so personal because it was my daughter and my niece.”
The Girls Will Be clothing offers several girls’ T-shirts without all the pink, sparkles, and ribbons that normally decorate girl’s clothing.
In fact, instead of pink and sparkly, the shirts come in bold primary colors with images of rockets , robots , dogs and empowering messages.
Today continued on to say that Girls Will Be takes its name from the empowering idea that girls can be whatever they want.
“The company opened for business on July 4 and sales exploded. Several of the most popular shirts are out of stock, but the company is restocking as fast as possible.”
Robyn Silverman, a child and teen development specialist, says that she sees girls and parents who want clothes that defy the clothing norm.
“I think girls are standing up and saying ‘I want something different.’ It’s not the girl on the fringe that is looking for this. I think it is a large number of girls that are looking for more than just pink and purple,” Silverman says.
“[P]arents are becoming more educated about the need for girls to define themselves instead of allowing the media to keep pushing them in a particular [way].”
Girls Will Be isn’t the only company aiming to give girls a wider choice in their apparel. There are many emerging companies that are trying to spread the same message, that girl’s don’t have to be pink and sparkly — They can be whatever they want.
[Image via Girls Will Be Facebook ]
