“Girls Will Be”: There is more than one way to be a girl

Girls Will Be: There's more than one way to be a girl.jpgWhat do you when your daughter is not aspiring to be Princess Elsa?  Gasp.  What do you do when your daughter loathes is not a fan of  pink?  What do you when your daughter last wore a dress almost two years ago to her father’s wedding (and even then only to placate yours truly, her soon to be step-mother)?

Power struggles aside, shopping for a non-girly girl can have its challenges.  Once we let go of our own feelings about a girl boycotting all of the cute sun dresses GAP has to offer (and for me it wasn’t that difficult as a girl who decorated her own room blue the first chance she got and scoffed at the idea of staying on the sidelines to cheer a sport rather than actually play it), we quickly realized the true nature of the challenge.  Finding non-ruffled, non-sparkly, no- hearts, non-pink clothing is not as easy as you might think.  Crazy 8 has a decent selection.  Old Navy does too.  But unless you are willing to do laundry four times a week to wash all 6 articles of clothing you were able to find, you have to find a different solution.

Ours was to move into the boys’ section of GAP and Old Navy (admittedly thinking it was a temporary solution while we waited out her extreme stubbornness on clothing).  This made our ultra-tomboy very happy.  But boys clothes are cut differently than girls.  Little girls’ bodies are different from boys’.  Some girls have curves you know.  My biggest pet peeve is ill-fitting clothes.   Pants too long, sleeves too long, shirts too baggy.  It’s one thing to have your own style, it’s another to look sloppy doing it.  Sigh.  Years later the challenge continues.

Enter Girls Will Be.  This looks promising!  Yes, in fact, the girls featured on the website look very much like our girl.  Girls wanting to be themselves.  Girls comfortable being themselves.  Girls looking happy being themselves.  Isn’t that what we want for our daughters?  To be comfortable and confident in who they are?  Who they really are?  Whether that means being decked out in all pink with a bow the size of Texas on their heads or a girl wearing boys madras plaid cargo shorts.

Girls Will Be is a newer company out of our neighboring city of Austin, Texas.  It was started by a mom who recruited her sister, both of whom have girls about Dudette’s age.  Their website states:

Girls Will Be is your headquarters for girl clothes without the girly! We bring you clothes that break free of the stereotypical girly styles dominating retail today. Because we think girls should have more options to express their individuality! Our style rules are simple — colors beyond pink, no girly embellishments, imagery that breaks gender stereotypes, and styles that let girls be kids.”

There must be a lot of other moms of non-girly girls out there because Girls Will Be just concluded a Kickstarter fundraising effort on their website to expand their line of clothing from just shirts into shorts.  They raised over $30,000 in no time.  Next up will be to expand the line into swimsuits, PJ’s, underwear, and more. Awesome!!

Their new line of shorts are now available for pre-order with delivery in June.  I just placed my order for Dudette!

I absolutely love their inspirational message that there is more than one way to be a girl.  Amen sister!

Bridget
Bridget was born and raised in San Antonio and moved back here after college and law school. She is a wife, full-time attorney, wrangler of four kids ages 15, 13, 3 and almost 2. As both a stepmom and mom, her life and house is always full and she loves to share about blended family life. Bridget is also passionate about infertility advocacy after having suffered multiple miscarriages and multiple rounds of IVF. Now with her stepkids, rainbow baby, and surprise baby, her family is complete and she is soaking up every minute of motherhood!