I walked through the entrance of Tween Girlz. I shopped in this store when I was younger and decided it wouldn’t be a bad place to work. When I walked in I recognized the bright and sparkly clothing and the Jonas Brothers music playing. I hadn’t been in this store since I was 12 years old.
It was my first day of work. The first thing I saw was three girls gathered around talking at the cash rap. Two of them were sitting on the counter behind the registers and one was facing away from the entrance and leaning against the opposite counter. When they saw me they waved and told me to put my bag and coat in one of the closed off dressing rooms, not in one of the lockers.
After I clocked in, they introduced themselves as Megan, Alex, and Autumn. There were a few customers browsing the store and my three new coworkers carried on with their conversation.
“Yea, they are like little bumps and they are everywhere, I don’t know if it’s herpes though, I mean it could be, but I hope it’s not.”
“Yea it could be anything, I wouldn’t worry too much.”
This was the first conversation I had heard while working at Tween Girlz and was, what I thought at the time, going to be one of the more explicit conversations I was going to hear. I very was wrong.
Working at Tween Girlz has been nothing like I had pictured it. I expected the girls I was going to work with to all be friendly towards each other, with minimal gossip and minimal drama like my previous job. Don’t get me wrong, I love all the girls I work with and they are all genuinely good people. But I was not prepared for the baggage that came along with working there. From adultery to breakups to stealing to pregnancy scares to fights to back stabbing and everything in between, it all happens. Who knew a place plastered with pink and sparkles where young girls run around and play with jars of colorful goo could be so dark? I didn’t.
*The name of the store and my employees’ names have been changed.
Sophia,
ReplyDeleteI like the topic of your passion blog. It is unique and captivating. However, the note about the Jonas Brothers in the first paragraph made me angry. It was interesting to read that you guys put your belongings in dressing rooms instead of lockers.
Ewwwwwww herpes. Sounds like some other friends of ours....
While your work atmosphere may be dramatic, I feel that that is what makes it fun. At my own job, there was a good amount of drama. We would pass time by discussing the drama, and the shift would go faster. Are you personally involved in any of the drama? I don't think you would be... That's too bad, though, that your work friends have so much drama in their lives. Maybe since you're (probably) so uninvolved in it, the best thing you can do is just offer advice!
Good luck with all the krazi gurlz.
Rock on!
-Rishi
I would have never expected that the girls working in a store for twelve year old girls would have so many problems. I've always assumed that the girls that work in stores like that are just as innocent as the twelve year old girls who shop there. Well, I was clearly wrong. This was an entertaining glimpse into the lives of complicated girls, who just happen to work in such in innocent place.
ReplyDeleteOH no! I guess there is no escaping the drama. I would have thought that amongst the bedazzled and glitterfied you would have found refuge, but even the tween stores are no longer safe. I think you have an interesting topic to write about and i'm sure you'll have plenty of material to write about. I look forward to hearing about more.
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