January 3, 2011—-Teenagers are infamous for following fashion trends, but the popular TOMS shoes provide a twist: buy a pair, and another pair is donated to a child in need of shoes. Similarly, more teens are being seen with the “I Love Boobies” bracelets, which support breast cancer awareness. This idea has even spread to the social networking site Facebook as students periodically change their profile pictures to icons or images spreading human rights awareness. It seems that showing support for different causes by buying their products has caught on within the high school population.
“I think it’s pretty cool that instead of buying things from companies, you can buy them from charities. Not only do you get yourself something, but you’re doing something for a bigger cause,” Kevin Kwon, junior from Cypress High School, said. He believes that this is a positive trend for the future.
Minji Kim, freshman from Torrey Pines High School, explains how the purchasing trend also helps the cause. “It spreads a lot of awareness when [students] show their friends because it makes them want to buy them.”
There has been a largely positive reception to the ongoing trend because it provides an easy way for teens to get involved with different causes, but some students are more critical of the popularity, saying the support is shallow.
“There is an increase in charity fads mainly because teens find it more convenient to buy things from charities than to physically help the organizations themselves,” said Piyush Prakash, junior from Carlsbad High School.
Although many students purchase the items, most of them do not seem to do more to help the cause directly. Sometimes, the promotions have negative effects as they compete with other types of donations.
“I believe the Boobies bracelets overshadow a lot of other types of cancer awareness and illnesses. Breast cancer has a really high survival rate compared to more severe types,” says Gina Horiuchi, senior from Cypress High School.
Jeung-Woo Hong, junior from Cypress High School, poses another concern about the reality of how the money is being used. “How do we know the companies aren’t using it for their own good? The products don’t really tell us a lot.” Many students don’t really know how the money is going to be helping the cause specifically and they seem apathetic towards knowing the specifics.
However, Andrea Kim, freshman from Oxford Academy, says fashion or fad, every bit helps. “It’s great when students are passionate about a cause, but it’s also a good thing to help out in these little ways too.” Hopefully, these trends show the start of a generation eager to go deeper to help further the causes of others.
