Since World War II, teens have been the object of retailers who seek to corner a new market by latching onto the latest styles a teenager "must have." The early trends included monogrammed bobby sox, charm bracelets and Hula-Hoops. What's different today is that the "must have" is often a very expensive brand name.
In "Branded: The Buying and Selling of Teenagers," Alissa Quart interviewed young girls whose closets were stuffed with Prada labels. It's not just the rich, either, who are prey to these fashion pressures. Every time Nike introduces a new style, kids from the ghetto line up to be the first to pay hundreds of dollars to be the hippest in the 'hood.
Most parents want to do their part to influence what their tweens and teens buy, but students of the habits of young consumers observe a culture that one critic calls a "filiarchy," a kingdom where children rule. Parents are often so concerned with the social lives of their children that they break budgets to buy clothes with hopes that the duds will make them "fit in," literally.
Divorced couples add to the problem when children play Mom against Dad, often without realizing that that's what the kids are up to. The mom who enforces the homework assignment won't win the spontaneous display of affection as often as the dad who buys the electric car.
Ironically, young people who are forging, for better or ill, their identities, rarely have minds of their own. They're dominated by their peers. What's new is that the peer group dominates parents, too. The "hurried child" finds an ally in the "too busy" parent.
What to do?
One solution might be for parents and children to shop together, as harrowing as this will no doubt be for long-suffering parents. Textbooks and math problems use brand names from Oreo to Nike to help children learn, and parents could use labels for learning, too. Ask your child to figure out how many Prada shoes or Cargo pants could feed a family of four for a week or go into a savings account for college. There's more than one way to expand homework.