Not All About Emo

Eleanor Coughlin (She/Her)

Editorial Team Member

I’m someone who’s very into fashion. I love putting together clothes and jewelry in ways that make interesting outfits. I never leave the house without an outfit that I think will make me look cool.

Many of my friends are also into fashion, and I think that many teenagers are also very into fashion.

It’s something that my parents don’t quite understand. My mom often questions why I always need to go out of the house in some sort of outfit, why I only own one pair of sweatpants and why I always have jewelry on. She tells me that I don’t need to wear this stuff for other people, but what she doesn’t understand is that I know that. I don’t wear my outfits for anyone else, and I don’t look the way I do for anyone else. I wear it for myself.

I tell her that fashion helps me express how I feel inside, but truthfully it’s more than that. I’m very into the alternative fashion scene, which can make some people wary. It’s very dark, with a lot of black/dark clothing and big eyeliner and spikes and chains.

Most people assume that people who wear alternative clothing are depressed and unhappy all the time, which I think my parents are concerned about. But for me, wearing my dark clothes and my big sharp spikes makes me much more happy and confident than I would ever be wearing something colorful and more ‘normal’.

I love my unique sense of style. It does express how I feel inside, but it expresses less of my unhappy emotions, and more of my creative feelings. I don’t think of wearing alternative clothes as showing the world how sad I am, but as showing off my creativity when it comes to fashion.

It also creates a sense of community between me and other people who dress like me. Whenever I see someone else in public  dressed alternative, there’s an unspoken sense of familiarity. When I meet someone with a similar style as mine, there’s a good chance we’re alike in other ways too.

Fashion is important for people who’ve felt alone in the past. When I was younger, I didn’t have many friends. I was lonely a lot, but when I started dressing the way I do, it drew people to me, and it gave me confidence.

My style isn’t for anyone else, and it’s not trying to make people think I’m cool. I know I’m cool, and people can have whatever opinion they want of me. My style isn’t showing off how sad I am, it’s showing off my creativity. My fashion makes me feel happy, confident, and strong. This is how fashion should be for everyone.