Parenting

"Gone are the days where prom shopping happens on a Saturday by popping to the local formal shop with your Mum a few weeks before. The advances in technology mean that researching the 'perfect' outfits, hairstyles and accessories can now start long in advance of the actual event. It feels like milestones such as GCSE & A Level Leaver's proms are now treated as significantly by young people as we might have felt about our own wedding days. In fact it's a lot like the 'coming of age' portrayed in Bridgerton so maybe things do move in cycles across the eras too! That said, teenagers are now subjected to social media across such a variety of platforms and this increases the pressure. People's budgets will differ wildly across the U.K. and even internationally and this can absolutely ramp up the stress too. I am hoping that Love Island this year being in partnership with eBay will increase young people's confidence to buy pre-loved which will keep the costs down and also be better for the environment too. Encouraging our young people to feel lovely whatever they look like and trying to help them contextualise this as an important milestone but not a make or break event might well be useful."