Victoria's Secret - Bright Young Things Line, thoughts?

shutupandlift13

I recently heard about the newest Victoria's Secret line, target consumer being 15 and 16 year old girls, called Bright Young Things. I did a little search on it and found this post:

http://phdsandpigtails.com/2013/03/23/victorias-secret-bright-young-things-age-compression/

I think its a very good point, I think today some children mature in superficial ways at a very young age and often times lack maturity in common sense and life skills. I think most of this comes down to letting the media/schools/society raise your children rather than taking on the responsibility to teach your children the value of not just superficial and material things and also what maturity truly means.

I actually found the video at the end the most interesting.

Anyway, I don't have kids, I am a young and dumb 24 year old trying to lose weight and get fit. But as someone who has always felt inadequate for not being the pretty, skinny girl, just the smart, nerdy girl (which is so not cool in grade school), I just think its important for girls to be taught that beauty isn't always everything, there's strength, health, work ethic, intelligence, kindness, compassion, so many things that are beyond the surface that make up the value of a person.

Thoughts?

BusyRaeNOTBusty

Absolutely. I started hiding the fact that I was smart around middle school. It was pretty awesome to go to an engineering college where everyone was smart and nerdy.

And yes I already try to teach my children that being smart and nice is more important than being pretty.

alpha_andy

I think:

- It's nothing new. Lots of retailers have been doing this such as Abercrombie, etc.
- Beauty is important because it is hard coded into all our brains due to evolutionary legacy.
- To deny the importance of beauty is to deny your humanity.
- While beauty is important, it is not nearly as important as other virtues such as intelligence, diligence, honesty, etc.

kathleenberchelmann

As a pediatrician I see the underwear that girls really wear. Here's my response, entitled, "Why Do Girls Wear Thong Underwear?": http://childrensmd.org/browse-by-age-group/why-do-girls-wear-thong-underwear/

theCarlton

Maybe I'm misunderstanding it myself, but I thought Bright Young Things is what they're calling the Spring Break pieces from their PINK line. Looking at their website I don't see that it's pointed at Middle Schoolers. http://www.victoriassecret.com/pink/spring-break

PINK has always been as small as XS which could fit the average American 9 year-old.

firstsip

As a pediatrician I see the underwear that girls really wear. Here's my response, entitled, "Why Do Girls Wear Thong Underwear?": http://childrensmd.org/browse-by-age-group/why-do-girls-wear-thong-underwear/

Lol, are you trolling the internet to plug your article?

shutupandlift13

Maybe I'm misunderstanding it myself, but I thought Bright Young Things is what they're calling the Spring Break pieces from their PINK line. Looking at their website I don't see that it's pointed at Middle Schoolers. http://www.victoriassecret.com/pink/spring-break

PINK has always been as small as XS which could fit the average American 9 year-old.

The articles I've seen mention that the line has been developed to target 15-16 year olds. I will see if there's anything else online about it. I knew their pink line seemed to be more for at least college girls if not high schoolers.

I still agree with the points on the oversexualization of teens and even children though.

Suzanne106

I haven't heard about this but then again I don't shop/wear VS. However, if they are promoting a line specifically towards tweens then I think it is repulsive. I don't wear VS because it is ridiculously overpriced and not worth the money. However, I think it is up to the parents to instill values/morals/ethics about things like this. As well as when it is of appropriate age to wear "sexy" under garments.

lgfox84

Is there something wrong with 15-16 year girls buying bras and panties? Why would someone buying Victoria's Secret items be considered superficial? The issue here is not Victoria's Secret it's people being weirdly judgmental about women in general.

theCarlton

Maybe I'm misunderstanding it myself, but I thought Bright Young Things is what they're calling the Spring Break pieces from their PINK line. Looking at their website I don't see that it's pointed at Middle Schoolers. http://www.victoriassecret.com/pink/spring-break

PINK has always been as small as XS which could fit the average American 9 year-old.

The articles I've seen mention that the line has been developed to target 15-16 year olds. I will see if there's anything else online about it. I knew their pink line seemed to be more for at least college girls if not high schoolers.

I still agree with the points on the oversexualization of teens and even children though.

I agree that children and young women are sexualized at an early age. But in respect to this article, I can't find any information besides the blogs that are talking about it being directed at children. I don't know where they got that from given the information they posted.

yesterdayusaid2morrow

I think:

Physical beauty as narrowly defined by the likes of Victoria Secret and GQ magazine is absolutely a construct of culture, not part of our nature! The sex impulse is "part of our nature", everything that establishes its and inappropriate expressions, including what people consider beautiful, is 100% cultural. This is easily recognized when you consider the many non-western cultures that value physical traits ranging from extra weight to an unnaturally elongated neck. We in the west are famously ethnocentric, we love to think of our ways as the most natural and correct, of our interpretation of "beauty" as biologically imparted rather than constructed by the while male elite. Such statements cast our (women's) concerns about beauty bias do much to slow the path to equality for women. What appears natural and inevitable becomes impossible to change, don't contribute to making beauty bias impossible to change by spreading the false assertion that it is an unalterable part of life. ALL KIND PEOPLE ARE BEAUTIFUL. Turn off the TV show, put down the magazine, and don't buy the brands that would deny our children the right to feel comfortable in their own skin.

yesterdayusaid2morrow

"Is there something wrong with 15-16 year girls buying bras and panties?"

No, there is something wrong with bras and panties being marketed to your girls using only the vehicle of the waif thin overtly sexualized half-naked teenager as the "model". Let's bring real people and bodies back into the media and marketing by not buying from companies that do this!

darleyschroeder

Should very sexy items be geared towards the under 18 group? No.
If the kid is working and buying it with their money then so be it. But if you're the mom or dad filling their pocket with money, then shame on you.
Sex sells, especially to vulnerable teens. Most teens want to be hot and will do what they can to get there. That's real.

shutupandlift13

There was an NBC Today Show segment on it, that's what I've been reading at least. Trying to find a video of the segment.

I don't think anything is wrong with 15-16 year olds buying bras and underwear. I just personally, don't agree with the sexual aspect of it especially if it is being marketed to such a young age, even younger than 15-16, like the blogs claim. But then again, its up to the parents to make these judgments, not me.

Here is the link: http://www.today.com/video/today/51113907#51102375 Having issues with getting it to work

RHeishman

I think that we have allowed the companies like Victorias Secrets to sell the idea that looking sexy and pretty is most important. Don't get me wrong, they have wonderful products and they are very pretty and sexy. Hell, as a guy...I'm jealous. ROFL. But so many women out there think that they must wear the perfect bra and matching panties in order to sell themselves. We need to find a balance. We need to teach young ladies to empower themselves, to reach for the starts intellectually. I've seen it far too much, good looking and sexy looking women do have an advantage. They do climb the corporate ladder based on their looks. But who's fault is that? Can you blame a girl for taking advantage of a system that has been put in place? No, you really can't. Blame those who put it in place and allow it to happpen.
While I think Victorias Secrets is a great store, wonderful line of lingerie and stuff...lets try to not pull in younger teenagers and making them think that this is what they must try to achieve. I think Victorias Secrets is crossing a thin line.

Mustaine4Pres

Maybe I'm misunderstanding it myself, but I thought Bright Young Things is what they're calling the Spring Break pieces from their PINK line. Looking at their website I don't see that it's pointed at Middle Schoolers. http://www.victoriassecret.com/pink/spring-break

PINK has always been as small as XS which could fit the average American 9 year-old.

The articles I've seen mention that the line has been developed to target 15-16 year olds. I will see if there's anything else online about it. I knew their pink line seemed to be more for at least college girls if not high schoolers.

I still agree with the points on the oversexualization of teens and even children though.

Here's one from a business website saying they are targeting 15 year olds:

http://www.businessinsider.com/victorias-secrets-pink-line-successes-2013-2

Lyadeia

Is there something wrong with 15-16 year girls buying bras and panties? Why would someone buying Victoria's Secret items be considered superficial? The issue here is not Victoria's Secret it's people being weirdly judgmental about women in general.

I agree with this.

In addition--

I was also the smart, nerdy, and overweight girl in school. BUT, when I wore something pretty, even if I was the only person who ever saw it, it always gave me a little bit more self-confidence. No, wearing Victoria's Secret undies did not turn me into some sexualized *kitten*, either. It made me feel beautiful, and it was nobody else's business what I was wearing under my jeans.

I still purchase the majority of my undies from VS, especially now that I can wear their size smalls (which makes me feel even better!). And you'll never convince me that selling ladies underwear to ladies is a bad thing. Unless of course you can *prove* that they are targeting young teens to buy the things that most adults consider part of foreplay. And after scouring their website and magazines for this proof, I haven't found it.

Damn those companies for trying to make women look and feel pretty in clothes. All ages and sizes should look like frumps so as to not offend the easily offended know-it-alls.

theCarlton

http://www.businessinsider.com/victorias-secrets-pink-line-successes-2013-2

That article confirms what I'm saying. It's their PINK line, which is marketed, as the article says, to 18-22. They aren't pointing their marketing at middle schoolers (that I can see). They mention the entertainment at the fashion show being evidence that they are, but people well into their 20s (even older) listen to Bruno Mars and Justin Bieber. I really think that people are interpreting something that's really subjective. Saying that 15-16 year-olds like these things doesn't mean VS is marketing at them. The line between what a 15 year-old likes and what a 17 year old likes is so thin it's almost non-existent.

shutupandlift13

I'll be honest, I'm a little embarrassed that I posted this without finding the original source of the debate which I think is the NBC clip... which I can't find a working link for.

If I do find the first hand information, I will post it. It's been interesting reading the replies so far.

theCarlton

I'll be honest, I'm a little embarrassed that I posted this without finding the original source of the debate which I think is the NBC clip... which I can't find a working link for.

If I do find the first hand information, I will post it. It's been interesting reading the replies so far.

It's ok. You were just creating a discussion, and it's a current thing that's out there now. Maybe someone on here knows something. I hesitate to say that VS wouldn't do this, I'm sure they would. Who doesn't want to market to people who have no bills and nothing but discretionary money? I would feel better about it if I didn't have the feeling that someone misunderstood the PINK line's Spring Break collection and the bloggers were basing their posts off of that.

AnnaMaus

I'm no fan of VS (or any the numerous related brands) but I agree that people should have nice underwear and enjoy wearing it. Fifteen and 16-year-olds--and the 18-22 set--are vigorously sexually active.... that's not changed since I was that age!

The whole "it's taking childhood away!" strikes me as a conceit of sanctimonious moralizers who don't care a thing for how life is lived or what kids actually want.

Hot panties aren't taking childhoods away. Caring for siblings all the time, or quitting school to go to work because your parents are struggling with unemployment, or watching your older siblings go off to war is what's taking childhoods away. If anyone really gave a fig for 'the children", they'd be campaigning for an immediate end to the wars, the nationalization of major industries, aggressive investment in social services and a damn jobs program.

I'm gonna go Woolite my delicates.

Really044Love

Why don't we lead by example and stop pretending that the only thing that matters in life is how we look? We are obsessed with it and all it leads to is self hatred, comfort eating and unhappiness. We are the biggest models to our kids. Yes Pink was basically already advertising to these kids... the age for anorexia has hit all time lows and so has childhood obesity.

Sometime we need to look deeper. We have a consumerist society, what do you expect. The funny thing, we are the ones buying in. You choose, you are the most important model... it starts with you.

There is nothing wrong with goals as long as they are to increase you love for yourself not so you are trying to be someone else or some ****ed up ideal.

Whoever made that point about it being evolutionary to care about looks, yea that is a layer of a massive concept. There is so much more to beauty (even at an evolutionary level) we are amazing as human beings and we can sense when someone is unhealthy under a beautiful outside too. For example, anorexia. It is the most counterintuitive thing to starve yourself to death in an evolutionary sense. Much more against nature than getting old, overeating and dying.

Just a thought. The media creates a feeling that we are not enough so we never stop buying beauty products or workout products. Think about it.

Really044Love

They are marketing at every woman. They say 18 because that is what is legal. At age 13 (Probably before) girls start thining about boyfriends, looking up to older women... you can say whatever age group you like. The reality is that girls and women alike are being brainwashed to think that anything less that photo-shoped, breast implanted perfection is not enough.

I love looking at VS like any other guy or girl but I don't take it on as part of my self worth. THey are visually beautiful but that is not the entire story. I wish we would market healthy minds, healthy bodies and healthy views of our selves as human being rather than ideals of people who are perfect and people who are not. We have a choie

jrzygrrl1

http://www.today.com/video/today/51113907#51113907

this should get you to the NBC story