Princess, Cowgirl, Streetwalker.

The other day when I was at the mall I forgot to avoid Libby Lu's. A place carpeted in glitter, where young girls run rampant dancing to Hannah Montana while chatting to their best friends (usually named Madison or Neveah) about which of the Jonas Brothers is their favorite. Oh, and it's aimed at girls under 10.

It drives me crazy when I see girls ogling themselves in the mirrors, streaking their lips with pink gloss, and shaking what their mother gave them (but has still not really developed yet). They sell risque clothes meant to show off one's assets to girls who don't have them yet, they radiate wrong perceptions, and the entire store promotes sexuality to girls who don't know what sex means.

Clothes like crop tops, tube tops, and short skirts and shorts designed for teens and women are meant to show off assets. Little girls do not have any assets yet and they should not get in the habit of showing their lack of assets off from a young age either. It's also baffling to me why mothers would want to see their girls all dolled up like that. I guess it's the same reasoning behind beauty queens, but the mothers always seem mystified when people have trouble likening their daughter to anything but a show pony.
Which leads into my next argument, that dressing children like that leads to wrong perceptions. When teens dress like this, many people call them not-so-nice names that I will not repeat here. When teens dress like that, they get leers from older men, catcalls on the street, and sent home from school for violating the dress code. When you see the clothes on a younger girl, it brings to mind the same words. While mothers may not associate these words with their heaven-sent child,
other people do. And the people who see your daughter parading around may be men who don't need to be told twice. They could be pedophiles. This is a drastic assumption, one which I am hesitant to make due to the magnitude of it, but it is possible that the sweet girl who decided to dress up like a teenager is seen as a wide open target for a pedophile while she's walking around the food court after visiting Libby Lu's.
Libby Lu's and these clothes promote sexuality to girls who don't know what sex is. If you walk by you see girls being encouraged to make sexy poses in front of a mirror with a feather boa. Or you might see a crop top getting adjusted so it's a little shorter. Instead of teaching girls to be who they want to be and that they don't need make-up and glitter to be attractive, they decide to promote getting dressed up so that you will be more attractive, because after all, everyone knows that guys go for the 10-year old dressed up in a sequined halter top. Dressing a child like this or taking a child somewhere like this lets the child know that it is "okay" to do things like this and that it is fun. Women should enjoy dressing up, mainly to attract men according to their philosophy. Put a little more body glitter on, smush the lipstick around on your lips and maybe Joe Jonas will waltz into your room and save you from your self-imposed misery. This is the last thing you should want to teach your child.

You can argue that Libby Lu's is simply dress-up, but the dress-up I was accustomed to involved princess dresses or being a cowgirl, not a girl destined for a street comer.