Why Do Girls Do Too Much For School?

“You’re Not Going to School for a Fashion Show”

Abisola Animashun, Staff Writer

Walking into the bathroom, I see two girls – they are on opposite sides of the bathroom, facing the mirror. I step into the stall, expecting that they will be gone as soon as I step back out a few minutes later. However, as I open the door, I see the same two girls still staring at their respective mirrors; one adjusting her hair, and the other applying makeup. I wash my hands, glimpse at myself in the mirror and, as I leave, I look back to see the two of them looking as if they won’t be done anytime soon.

This incident has left me wondering: Why were these two girls – and many others just like them – so worried about their physical appearance at school?

Countless times, I walk by the bathroom or enter a bathroom and a quick glance inside the doors reveals girls extending the time they are in the bathroom to fix their whole appearance.

I notice this trend mostly among underclassmen, especially ninth graders who are fresh out of middle school and still running on a middle-school mentality. In most young girls’ minds, they want to impress that certain somebody or show others that they’re grown. Oftentimes, this causes them to lose sight of their main goal at school: to be focused on school, not friends, not attention, but on school.

I could be wrong, and the issue could be deeper than just putting on makeup or making sure your hair is “on fleek.” The issue could be getting bullied or some insecurity about how you look, and the time in the bathroom is a way of making sure you look good on the outside, even if you aren’t feeling so good on the inside. However, if that is not the case and you are just spending time to make yourself look just right, it’s time to move along.

As time goes on and younger students transition to upperclassmen status, they will realize that about 90% of the time most girls just don’t care how they look anymore.

Of course, there are exceptions – those girls who still try to put an effort in, but the truth is, growing up in age also brings confidence. As you grow older, you mature and learn what you’re actually in school for and that all that putting your makeup on before class and making sure you’re revealing a little something-something is unnecessary.

Any junior or senior who has worked hard to progress in school knows that junior year is the time to buckle down if you haven’t already because it’s such an important year academically. The types of courses you take generally get harder, and often you find yourself coming to school in sweats; hair barely kept and, quite frankly, barely able to keep your eyes open from that all-nighter you pulled to get your work done. It’s hard to focus on your appearance when you’re more concerned about your grades.

Of course, some young ladies will continue to keep up appearances and continue to spend time in the mirror for long periods of time (time they should be spending in class). To these people, I say, even if you are going to make sure you have no flyaway hair or will continue checking to see if your lipstick is still on, don’t hog up the mirror in the bathroom or proceed to take pictures, because I’d like to take a glimpse at myself in the mirror too before I leave and head back to class.

Perhaps my mom’s thickly Yoruba-accented words say it best: “You’re not going to school for a fashion show!”