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School Bullying Over Fashion Choices Is Increasing

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 26, 2007

Teen and adolescent girls long have used fashion as a social weapon. In 1944, Eleanor Estes wrote 'The Hundred Dresses,' a book about a Polish girl who is made fun of for wearing the same shabby dress each day. The 2004 film 'Mean Girls' focused on fashion-conscious cliques among high school teens. But today, guidance counselors and psychologists say, fashion bullying is reaching a new intensity as more designers launch collections targeted at kids.

As a result, an increasing number of school and community programs focused on girl-on-girl bullying are addressing peer pressure and the sizable role clothing plays in girls' identity.

Business, Page 3

•In several states community groups and some schools have started Club or Camp Ophelia, a pair of programs that teach girls relationship skills. A 'Bully Quiz' girls take asks, 'Have you stopped being friends with someone because she wore clothes you didn't like?'

•Over the past three years, numerous designers have targeted the lucrative children's and teens' markets.

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