Your Teen Daughter’s Style: Encouraging Classy Self-Expression
So you have a teen daughter. Now what? How do you help her transition from a girl to a young lady to ultimately a woman? Not just any woman, a very elegant and classy woman, a force to be reckoned with, so to speak. Let’s try to get her to actually have more than a two minute conversation with you, for starters. We are going to have a crash course about how to connect with your teen daughter so that you can get her to buy into whatever you as the parent are trying to sell.
Anyone who has shared a close proximity space with a teenager knows that this is a time when they are trying to find themselves. Most people do not realize it but this is actually the best time for you to help them “find” themselves, or at least find you in them. So how do you connect with someone who does not express any interest in connecting with you? Get on their level! If she likes to watch videos, watch them with her. Ask her questions about why she likes them; you would be surprised by the response. If she likes to text, BY ALL MEANS TEXT HER! Don’t forget teenagers are humans first and what do most people want? They want to feel needed, loved and wanted! So make her feel all of these and more.
When she comes home from school, ask how her day went, what she encountered and how it made her feel. The more you express interest in her, the more she will open up and share with you. Continue this for a while and you will actually have to tell her to be quiet because she will talk your ears off! It’s a good thing. You are building a rapport and developing trust. Make sure not to break this trust, because once broken, it will be difficult to regain.
Now that you have her heart and ears, then you can move forward to the next step, which is to instill in her the values, morals and all around “class act” that will make her change the way she dresses. When you change the way she thinks on the inside, it will be much easier to change how she appears on the outside. Take her to the mall and see what she chooses. Nine times out of ten, there will always be some super flashy short skirt, or skin tight cut out jeans that she just cannot seem to take her eyes off. What else could you expect when every mannequin in the mall is displaying nothing but their sexy back? So how do you get her NOT to look at these items and procure a more classy type of daily wear? Let’s go back to our previous steps. You have her ears so…..TALK HER INTO IT!
Simple as that. Once she sees how much you are “into her” she will want to do anything she can to return the favor. When you go to the mall, gently encourage a more classy approach to the short skirt or tight jeans. Show her that wonderful baby doll shirt that would work so well with some footless tights and flats! Then make it a complete class act by adding a belt to the shirt! The more excited you are about making her wardrobe classy, the more likely she will buy into it. In fact, enjoy the transformation from the typical teenage norm to a totally classy reform!
