This mother is concerned children’s clothing retailers are producing items that are inappropriate for kids, especially young girls.
Young girls have long been over-sexualized, and it’s only gotten worse in the social media age.
Children’s retailers shouldn’t be feeding into it as well, this mom implied.
Have retailers gone too far?
In a trending video with more than 84,000 views, TikToker Summer (@duhkota2) called out The Children’s Place, a popular clothing, shoes, and accessories store targeted at younger kids, as well as Shein and Target’s kids’ clothing section.
“@thechildrensplace. WTF ARE YALL ON ?!? @target tooo! You mfs make me sick bro. @SHEIN yall be doing it too ! Calm tf down,” the text overlay on the video read.
Filming from inside The Children’s Place, Summer explains her daughter had an upcoming field trip to a play that week. So she wanted to get her a special, Christmas-themed outfit to wear.
But as she searched through the store, Summer noticed something off-putting to her.
“Why … are they selling crop tops? Why are they pandering crop tops to little kids? Like to 7- and 8-year-olds?” she asks, upset.
“Why can’t they wear a full sweater?” Summer questions.
She continues, “Why does it have to be a belly shirt? … Why does it have to show any of their stomachs?”
It’s safe to say that Summer didn’t think the items were appropriate and that she believes retailers need to be more conscious of the age of kids they’re making clothes for.
Is it really a cropped sweater?
“My daughter has the same one, and they’re not crop tops at all like it’s a regular cute sweater,” a person pointed out in the comments.
According to The Children’s Place website, the sweater Summer was looking at was a normal length for the retailer. While they do sell cropped sweaters, the word “cropped” is noted in the item’s site description.
The Children’s Place doesn’t list the product’s exact measurements. Based on the images of the regular vs. cropped sweaters on the site, it seems the sweaters Summer was looking at are a bit longer than the cropped sweaters. Though they still appear to be shorter than a standard sweater.
We did notice that the sweater styles seemed to vary significantly in length (at least based on picture comparison), with some regular sweaters only being (what seems like) an inch or two longer than the cropped ones. Other sweaters had a more pronounced length difference.
It’s also important to note that there are different levels of “crop.” Some cropped tops and jackets hit at the belly button or waist. Other cropped items might hit at the midriff or very top of the hips.
So, just because the retailer doesn’t explicitly call the sweater “cropped” doesn’t mean it isn’t shorter than what some might consider the standard length.
Opinion in the comments
Many viewers agreed with Summer.
“This is my biggest problem shopping for my daughter majority of the tops are all crop tops smh,” a person said.
“It’s all the clothes. I saved my daughters clothes, compared them to my sons clothes. same size/brand, but the shorts are shorter, shirts are tighter. It’s insane,” another added.
“Even for us adults it’s annoying sweaters, jackets,everything is crop tops,” a commenter wrote.
The Daily Dot reached out to Summer for comment via TikTok direct message and comment and to The Children’s Place, Target, and Shein via email.
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