The Summer before I started middle school, I moved to SoCal from a small town in NorCal. My mom had checked out Ventura before moving my brothers and I there with her, and she told me that there was so much bargain shopping to do.
Growing up, I was used to going straight to the clearance racks at retail stores with my mom, but I had never been keen on the idea of wearing clothes originally worn by other people. When she first took me into a thrift store in downtown Ventura, I felt yucky. I also hated that I had to sift through a bunch of random pieces of clothing until I could find something that would possibly fit me and what I was looking for.
Until one day, she came home with a whole bag of clothes for me.
Do you remember that episode of Lizzie McGuire when Lizzie insisted on buying that expensive, sparkly pair of jeans off of the mannequin at the mall? Then, her mom decided to go bargain-shopping instead and found her an even cooler pair of black jeans with rhinestones down the side – for a fraction of the price? Lizzie’s jaw dropped and she felt a little guilty for doubting her mom’s shopping skills, and that’s sort of how I reacted when when my mom pulled out this emerald green, cropped vest with gold stud buttons.
It was similar to vests that I had put on my wishlist from expensive stores like Free People that a girl my age had no reason to spend her mom’s money at, but it was also like nothing I had ever seen before – it was better and it looked brand new! I couldn’t believe that she had found so many cool pieces from the same kind of store I had so quickly dismissed before. Not only did I love everything she found, I was impressed that she had only spent about fifteen dollars total.
She told me that if you go into a thrift store with a closed-mind, you’re less likely to find something. “You have to be willing to search.”, she told me, “You have to put in the time, that’s when you’ll find the treasures.”
So, I gave thrift store shopping another chance. Once I realized that: 1. it takes some patience to find what you’re looking for – or something you weren’t looking for, but love anyways and 2. you can wash the used clothes you buy (duh), I fell in love with it. I did most of my back-to-school shopping at Goodwill and Salvation Army throughout middle school and high school. Doing so allowed me to experiment with many different styles, and put together outfits that were trendy or unique.
To this day, thrifting is still one of my mom and I’s favorite things to do, separately and together. I love that thrifting has become the, “cool” thing to do among girls who are the age I was when I first rejected the idea.
Moral of the story: thrifting is cool, and mom’s still always right (well, most of the time. )