Representation of oneself has become more and more popular as time has gone on. At Green Level, you can find many different types of expressing oneself through the building. One way many students in the building represent themselves is through clothing. Clothing trends have been around for generations. The 1980s was prime time in clothing trends and cliches. You can see a bunch starting to arise again, such as scrunchies. I have talked with sophomore Zoe Mueller about their expressive fashion choices. Zoe says that they are a part of the goth community. 

I asked Zoe why it is so important to express yourself. They said it makes them feel good and important about themselves. When asked if clothes define how people see them, Zoe explains that people view them as weird and different, but at the same time, they feel like it’s a good community to be around. They feel like it is not their problem with how people view them because they are happy the way they are. So, why does Zoe dress the way they do? Music has a big impact on how Zoe dresses and they want to represent themselves into something they are very interested in. It’s important to have the ability to represent yourself in many ways, many people choose clothes as a way to represent themselves. Zoe finds it important not to focus on what people think and just to be themselves.

Zoe doesn’t think that Green Level limits students’ level of expressing themselves. They say that it depends on how confident you are with how you want to represent yourself and that the teachers seem to be very accepting. Finally, I asked Zoe about what the goth community is like. A few people they are really close with because they are able to relate to all this stuff with, but at the same time you can find people that can be gatekeeper about it because they feel like you have to like certain things. It’s really easy to make friends where you didn’t expect because of the community’s online presence. It’s nice to find the fact that Green Level is a safe enough environment where they feel like they could have a community of shared interest.

The ways fashion has come into representing oneself is amazing. It shows that people can feel comfortable enough to express themselves in an environment that they don’t feel limited in.