With the famous blue bag swinging from her hand, 13-year-old Michaela Brown exited the Tiffany & Co. store with a look of satisfaction. She had just purchased a $125 necklace.
"It was a gift from me to my mom," she said. "I saved up for a long time."
But even if she had been shopping for herself, the price tag wouldn't have been significantly less.
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| Photo by Miriam Alvarado. |
Michaela believes that if she stops buying popular brands and looks for cheaper alternatives, people would change their perception of her. "People are so judgmental these days," said Michaela, who attends Fisher Middle School in Los Gatos and was interviewed at Westfield Shoppingtown Valley Fair.
There are many reasons why students opt for more expensive clothing and accessories. If asked to choose between a $30 polo shirt from Abercrombie and Fitch and a $6 polo from Target, most students - if they have the means - would choose Abercrombie.
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| Photo by Miriam Alvarado |
In times when the economy is less than thriving, young people still find ways to spend $175 billion a year, according to a study by Harris Interactive, a global market research firm based in Rochester, N.Y.
Sonya Thompson, a professor of Human Ecology at the University of Alberta in Canada, said she felt compelled to create a class called "Marketing to Teens: Gotta Have It! Designer & Brand Names" so that students could "step back and begin to clarify their values around consumerism.
"Adolescents get stuck in a very superficial version of reality," said Thompson. "One of the effects of this is that we lose touch with what is really important and focus instead on how we look and what we wear."
And that might be what makes teens spend outrageous amounts of money on the hottest new trends. Peer pressure also plays a significant role in this name-brand obsession. Experts say that pressure functions as a type of "bragging right," prompting teens to display how much one owns, and how much he or she has to spend.
Teens admit that the desire to fit in, as well as look good, can lead to expensive habits.
"Clothing is more or less an expression of one's personality," said Jeffrey Ying, 17, of Fremont.
Jeffrey said he shops at upscale retailers such as Saks Fifth Avenue, Gucci and Versace because he believes that these stores offer a more unique look. "They cut very well," he explained. "And they have good sizes."
Jeffrey sells unwanted accessories, clothing and other miscellaneous items on eBay for extra spending money to bolster his allowance, which is about $100 a month.
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| Photo by Miriam Alvarado |
"Wearing an Italian designer like Versace is probably going to do more for their self-image than K-Mart," he said.
Materialism also influences the choices teens make about shopping.
Michelle Thelen-Steere, a partner in Native Intelligence, Consultative Educators, said that Americans, especially on the West Coast, are at the heart of consumerism worldwide. She argued that the media fills the public with materialistic principles, prompting teens to buy into the overpriced market.
"Teens nowadays are the No. 1 population targeted because they are the consumers of the future," said Thelen-Steere. "It's analogous to the stock market: teens are treated as investments that yield higher returns as time continues."
Thelen-Steere said corporations use that attitude to market their products to teens. Instead of using mainstream tactics of advertising, she said, these companies use "masstrans," which is a belief system that subconsciously appeals to the ego.
While Jeffrey uses eBay to help him buy expensive labels, where do other teens get the means to pay for these pricey items?
Michaela does 20 chores around the house each week, and in return, her parents give her $20.
Seventeen-year-old David Cilia, who just graduated from Prospect High School, works as chief supervisor in a restaurant to satisfy his love for expensive, name-brand clothing. David likes shopping at upscale stores such as Abercrombie, American Eagle and Banana Republic because, he said, "they have really good clothes, and sometimes they have specials for less money."
Some people may argue that simply having Abercrombie and Fitch's little embroidered moose on a shirt isn't worth the extra money, but teens find a way to justify their spending.
"True, Abercrombie's clothes may be more expensive, but they're more likely to last longer than Target's," said 15-year-old Katrina Totten of Ft. Bragg, who with a San Jose friend was shopping at Valley Fair. Her favorite stores are Hollister, Abercrombie and Urban Outfitters.
Some parents and teens argue about adolescent spending habits, but it's not an issue between Jeffrey and his mother.
Jeffrey said his mother does not put a cap on his spending, and actually likes to buy expensive purses and shoes as well. And since he earns his own money, his mother doesn't really care about how he spends it.
That's exactly what those who market their products to youth like to hear. Marketing officials at big corporations know that many parents have a laissez-faire attitude when it comes to their kids' spending habits and they take advantage of this by purposely creating advertisements that make the gap between parents and their children even wider.
The proliferation of technology means marketers can, and do, advertise to youth through many types of media, including the Internet and television. These experts talk to psychologists and find out how to woo young customers. Studies show that 26 percent of children under the age of two have televisions in their bedrooms.
And some experts say that since the obsession with brand names is a symptom of poor self-esteem, the solutions really lie in teens themselves.
"People are bombarded with messages that clothes make you sexy, cool. Marketers make people think that they are dumb if they don't follow the trends," said Susan Linn, associate director of the Media Center for Children at Harvard University's Judge Baker Children's Center. "There isn't just one solution; it's a societal solution, ultimately. But teens can make a difference."