Why are kids being dressed to look like adults?

When else can kids just be kids, if not during childhood?

If you look at your own or your colleagues’ and peers’ childhood photo albums, you will laugh; it’s guaranteed. Because the first thing you’re going to notice is the ridiculous bowl cut that almost every single one of us had as a toddler. And then maybe a frilly frock or dungarees paired with a cartoon tee, rainbow-coloured bloomers, bucket hats or caps with cute animal ears, Mary Janes, kicks with Velcro, and a toothy smile or a super animated expression that only adds to the joy of how our younger selves were styled to be: utterly curious and plainly playful.

Now look at any toddler today. The bowl cut is absent, replaced by a face-framing layered haircut, quite possibly even a blowout. Backpacks are traded for handbags. Frilly dresses are switched with crop tops and low-rise jeans. Lace ribbons on double ponytails are swapped with bandanas and aviator sunnies. The difference is stark, even if it isn’t alarming anymore. But why are we so obsessed with dressing our kids like they are adults?

In a world where youth is fetishised, and infantilising women is an eerily normalised thing to do, trying to make kids look like grown-ups with their own specific careers is just absurd.

You don’t have to be wearing the same thing I wear to work. Because why have the days come when I find myself twinning with a six-year-old, and, low-key, they’re giving me a run for my money? Parents, excuse yourself and your kids, please.

If adults can’t dress like kids, why are kids dressing like adults?

On the flipside, do you recall when Olivia Rodrigo was in hot water for wearing a babydoll dress? The whole controversy centred on the idea that she was infantilising herself, and many people interpreted that she was giving off sexual ambiguities. Which begs the question: if a grown-up gets such kind of flak for dressing like a kid, what does it mean when kids are deliberately dressed to look like adults? It’s not the ideal precedent to be setting in either case.

Yes, babydoll dresses have been punk for a while. Still, the larger point is that an entire generation across the globe has come to associate a woman wearing something traditionally considered a “kids’ dress” with sexuality. That’s a pretty strange cultural truth in itself.

Let kids have a childhood that isn’t made for the algorithm

Of course, there are parents who want their kids to look stylish and strangely grown for whatever intents and purposes that might be, Instagram influencer kid careers included. But some parents understand that their kids’ privacy and childhood experiences deserve to be kept as such, maintaining their sanctity. Avoiding posting their kids’ fit-check reels or covering their faces with emojis so that the algorithm doesn’t push them to an unwanted audience are some of the things parents are doing to protect their children from an internet audience they never asked for.

Because allowing your kids to enjoy a childhood free from the projections of society’s often warped ideas and other people’s missed opportunities is what matters most. A childhood that is a little more untethered, not so curated, a childhood that belongs entirely to them and allows them to be themselves and express themselves, may just be what allows them to grow into more well-rounded adults later on.

‘Perfectly curated’ isn’t doing your kid any favours

There’s also another aspect to consider before shopping for the perfectly curated adult-aesthetic fit for your kid or your nieces and nephews: you’re also training them to be perfectly curated beings. And that’s not exactly the flex you think it is. It might be secretly putting pressure on them to always look good and maybe even seek and expect even more external validation as they grow up. When every outfit is chosen to look good on camera, fit an aesthetic, or mimic what adults are wearing, where does that leave room for a child to actually figure out what they like? Be it aesthetically or even just comfort-wise.

Let them be badly dressed and brilliantly happy

Personal style is, after all, supposed to be personal. It’s something you grow into, mess around with, get embarrassingly wrong, and eventually figure out for yourself. Kids don’t need to reach the finish line before they’ve even learnt how to dress themselves. And frankly, as any true '90s kid will tell you, part of figuring out your personal style as an adult is looking back at childhood photos and wondering what on earth your parents were thinking. The outfits may have been hideous, but we look back with reverence and can proudly say “I rocked that look,” or even “never again.” 

Parents, listen up. Let them wear the cartoon tee. Let them have the ridiculous hat. Let them pair Mary Janes with something that absolutely does not go together. Their childhood photos don’t need to prove that they had impeccable fashion sense. They just need to be captured proof that they were kids who had lots and lots of fun.

Lead image: Getty Images

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