As teenagers start to become more independent and move towards adulthood they are constantly making choices and decisions that sometimes have a huge impact on them later. Good decision making skills and sound judgement skills are essential and are used even when choosing clothing, these skills can help with self confidence and self esteem. Making poor choices and un thought out decisions “also useful,” will also help to improve their exceptance of responsibility for their own actions hence suffering consciences and learn very important social developmental skills along the way that help to find their place in our society.
Statistic have shown the average size of woman and men has increased considerably over the past 10yrs and so to has the size of our teenagers. The demand for trendy plus size teenage clothing has increased dramaticly and now we are starting to see positive changes as designers realise there is big money to be made in plus sizes and are finally expanding into the plus size clothing market and including teenage plus sizes. This will eventually give plus size teenagers a variety of designer clothing similar to the choices given to teenage who wear standard sizes up to a size eighteen.

The variety of trendy plus size teenage clothing is on the improve although still a long way from adequately catering for this niche market. I have come across a few shops including: Alight, Figuresque and Delia’s who all carry a variety of trendy plus size jeans, plus size dresses and plus size tops all exclusively designed for plus sizes to ensuring a perfect fit and Chic Star who offer limited stock in plus size teenagers clothing that has an individual appeal for teenagers. Their range of trendy plus size teenage clothing including, plus size gothic wear, plus size rockabilly, plus size corset pencil skirts, plus size corset tops and some vintage plus size clothing.

Teenagers often need to express who they are or would like to be through many different avenues usually in their choice of clothing, hair, body piercing, tattoos, etc. They really just want to fit into a certain group and much prefer the scruffy look. Teenagers will experiment and experience a variety of challenges as they eventually find their own identity. They each with their own ideas as to what looks tendy or cool and usually is a particular style of a peer or a famous person. As parents we may not always agree or approve of their choices but we should not be judgemental of their individual preferences in clothing whether it be punk, gothic, scruffy, indie, rock or townie but we need to understand their need to have different options available in their choice in clothing. We need to guide teenagers in the right direction, be good role models and provide lots of emotional support.