Latest news with #teenfashion
Forbes
29-06-2025
- Health
- Forbes
Why Teens Wear Hoodies When It's Hot Revisited
Close-up of a young hipster dressed in a sweatshirt and jeans sitting sad in a skate park and ... More holding a skateboard Three years ago I penned a piece asking why teens wear hoodies in the summer heat and explored whether science could explain it. It was inspired by my curiosity, scientific background and being a father of teenage boy. He and his friend group are certainly fans of the practice. In that article, I tried to approach the topic from an objective, scientific and compassionate perspective. Anchoring to an essay by Ian Lecklitner in Mel Magazine titled, 'Stop Bagging on People Who Wear Hoodies During Summer," I explored reasons such as UV or insect protection, body image concerns, emotional comfort (the weighted blanket effect) and availability of pockets. Though all plausible, it still lacked enough scientific backing for my taster, yet my curiosity remained. As I continued to explore the scientific literature, additional scientific data caught my eye. As noted previously, there is already a robust library of studies on weighted blankets as a support mechanism for people with insomnia, on the autism spectrum, or dealing with stress. A Harvard press release noted, 'The blankets are supposed to work much the same way tight swaddling helps newborns feel snug and secure so they can doze off more quickly. The blanket basically simulates a comforting hug, in theory helping to calm and settle the nervous system.' Ledklitner argued that hoodies serve in a similar fashion for teens. Weighted blankets on display in a Saatva mattress showroom in New York, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Mary ... More Conlon) While my son's generation wears regular hoodies, there is a actually a weighted hoodie market out there too. Writing on the website Annabelle Denmark wrote, 'Numerous studies underscore the positive effects of even weight distribution on adults dealing with neurodivergence, anxiety, or complex trauma. This practice has been shown to elevate serotonin levels, fostering a sense of relaxation, grounding, and improved focus.' However, I wanted to dig deeper than the weighted hoodies and emotional support theory. Dr. Vanessa Beck at the University of Leicester wrote an excellent essay dismantling false narratives about teens who wear hoodies. She argued, 'Whilst some of these characteristics (poverty, ethnicity, etc.) might conform to the stereotype of the hooded youth, there are far broader issues at stake here that require governmental and societal attention.' Her writing resonated with me as the father of a respectful, intelligent kid who may be stereotyped while wearing a black hoodie. Madhumanti Majumdar is a psychologist and special needs educator. In 2024, she documented her discussions with teens about wearing hoodies in a blog titled, 'The Hoodie Culture: Fighting insecurities and vulnerabilities one hoodie at a time.' Her findings align with observations that any parent of a teenager understands. These include peer culture, confidence, and personal perspective. She stated, 'The recurring words I heard — like 'safety net,' 'secure,' 'vulnerable,' 'comfortable,' and 'feeling confident' — left me astonished. It's remarkable how wearing a hoodie can evoke such deep feelings and emotions!' Like my first foray into this topic, she came away with a new perspective. However, the weather and climate scientist in me still needed more because my non-scientific, speculative observations reveal that it is mostly teen boys that seem to wear hoodies during the summer or on hot days. A 2020 study published in the Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles caught my interest. The study focused on teenagers' self-identified cold tolerance and wearing behavior inside and outside the classroom during the winter season. Generally, they found very few differences in behavior, however, female students were found to be more sensitive to the cold, which prompted them to wear more clothing. Other studies have shown that men exhibit greater tolerance to heat exposure and smaller increases in their core body temperature though confounding factors may complicate such findings. There are studies that suggest that as boys and girls get older hormonal differences cause men to sweat more. Sweat functions as a cooling mechanism for our bodies. I am no expert on these topics so defer to them ultimately. My point here is there no conclusive smoking gun in the literature about difference in tolerance between boys and girls that might explain my speculative observations. Which brings me back to the emotional support hypothesis. Recent data suggests that mental health is increasingly a major challenge for teens. That same data notes that teen girls are particularly struggling. Anita Slomski wrote a summary of a recent CDC Youth Risk Behavior Survey for the JAMA Network. She said, 'According to the survey findings, which included data from more than 17 000 students in 152 public and private schools, 57% of teen girls reported feeling persistently sad or hopeless in the past year—a nearly 60% increase from 36% in 2011. In contrast, 29% of teen boys reported feeling this way in 2021, an increase from 21% in 2011.' My deeper dive revealed some interesting things from a scientific and cultural perspective regarding teens and hoodies. However, I think Madhumanti Majumdar nails it. She went on to say, 'Ultimately, the decision to use a hoodie in this manner is a personal one, and what may be effective for one individual may not be for another.' Many of you reading this have likely chosen an outfit or piece of clothing based on how it made you feel or look, so we have to check our judgment of teens at the door. I resonate with the 'to each their own' perspective, but my reasons for thinking about this topic in the first place circles back to my area of expertise. Our summers are getting warmer. According to NOAA, 2024 was the warmest year since 1850 and by a significant margin. They pointed out, 'Earth's temperature has risen by an average of 0.11° Fahrenheit (0.06° Celsius) per decade since 1850, or about 2° F in total…. The 10 warmest years in the historical record have all occurred in the past decade (2015-2024).' Global average surface tempeature difference s since 1850.
Globe and Mail
16-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Globe and Mail
I watched as my daughter found a grad dress that blew away her childhood
First Person is a daily personal piece submitted by readers. Have a story to tell? See our guidelines at My 17-year-old emerges butt-first from the dressing room, asking me to tighten the laces on her corset. The dress is dark seafoam, strapless and sparkly, with ombré poufs of darker, layered chiffon that trails on the floor. In and out of the change room, my daughter is light years away from her regular uniform of jeans, hoodies and Air Force One sneakers. If dresses have names, this one is an obvious Love Boat. I keep my face blank, yet encouraging, careful to read her reaction before saying what I think even as the show's schmaltzy theme song cues in my head. If there's one thing I've learned as a mother of a teenage girl, it's the value of staying mum. On the hanger, this dress was about as close to the stretchy, sparkly Little Mermaid outfit she wore to school when she was four. But today, my daughter isn't playing a game or pretending to be grown-up. She is showing me what she has become. My daughter is taking this job of finding a dress as seriously as a calculus exam. I picture the wheels in her head cranking away as she scrutinizes neckline and hemline, evaluating the quantity of lace and quality of fabric. Beyond mother-daughter politics, the second part of keeping my thoughts to myself is to retain this delicate façade of calm, which is one push-up bustier away from collapse. With every new dress reveal, I press my tongue to the roof of my mouth, clutch the box of Kleenex on my lap, and pray for the strength to keep it together. The curtain opens again and I want to burst into applause. This black strapless gown has a sweetheart neckline that cinches at the waist with a black satin ribbon over a floor-length flume of lightly-layered gauze. It is classic and exquisitely feminine. In this classic and exquisitely feminine dress, my door-slamming teen, who leaves piles of mouldy water bottles and dirty underwear on her bedroom floor, is transformed into calm, cool sophisticate. The dress commands a certain posture, and my daughter obeys. Forget The Love Boat. This is more, 'Prepare the yacht.' I hide behind my phone and take 300 photos. This dress costs around triple this month's rent. 'Too fancy,' she declares, after admiring herself thoroughly. 'Thank God,' I say silently. She appears again, this time in a pale pink sheath that takes my breath right out of my lungs. She angles herself to the mirror for a glimpse of her backside with the smallest of satisfied smiles. She knows exactly who she is looking at, and it's so obvious that the girl in the mirror is someone she really likes. This dress is the killer, the one I'll forever hold responsible for stealing the last fumes of my daughter's childhood that swirl briefly overhead. Just as I've decided to renegotiate the mortgage, she saves me the trouble. 'I love it, but the price is ridiculous,' before going on about how we'd better move on if we really want to find something today. Our family's secularism has excluded us from communions and confirmations, bull jumping and bat mitzvahs. If we were from Latin America, we would have celebrated her quinceanera two years earlier, right in the middle of her physical blooming and synaptic pruning and general violent reordering, corpus callosum. Fancy words for 10,000 eye rolls and three years of extremely snappy backtalk. Hardly the time I'd choose to honour her with a huge party. The change room has become a porthole to Narnia, a magical wardrobe for metamorphosis with a steep learning curve. And the learning curve isn't for her, it's for me, because with every dress, I catch up a little more to where she's been for a while – a place I was unable, or unwilling, to see. My lovable, prickly, youthful caterpillar contains a woman. Seventeen might be late compared to traditional ceremonies, but it's the right time for us. We both know the dress is 'the one' even before I've finished lacing her up. A side-peaked structured bustier with a straight skirt to the ankles and a long slit up the back. Deep burgundy, lightly brocaded with a matching lace overlay. The dress is straightforward with classic lines. Just like my girl. Her dark features warmly complimented by the richness of the red. It fits as if it were made for her. She will wear her long, chestnut hair down in a loose wave. This dress doesn't cue any theme songs and doesn't need a clever name. It is simply The One. The dress is special enough to hold all those missed rituals together. Maybe even more for me than for her. Joanna Baxter lives in West Vancouver.
