A lot of students from San Luis Obispo High School buy their clothes from big-name brands such as H&M, Forever 21, Urban Outfitters, and more. Yet these big-name brands put employers, especially females’ lives at risk. Places like H&M have had multiple lawsuits and people and the majority of students at SLOHS still continue to shop and support these businesses.

  “I wouldn’t shop at those clothing stores if they would kill me or anything, but for the sexist part, that doesn’t really bother me because no matter what, I think it’s not going to change their minds,” said freshman Tati Gumbs.

  A lot of people don’t know what happens to the people that make their favorite pair of jeans or top. Many just assume that there are assembly lines of people that love their job making clothes. But in reality, it’s been shown that places that make the clothes are harmful to the people that work there. The chemicals they are exposed to are toxic, the people barely make enough money to live, and they have working policies such as if a woman becomes pregnant, she is fired.

  “That’s dumb honestly, it doesn’t really make sense on why the companies should agree to clothes that are made like that, what they do is offensive to women and it’s been a problem for years, and it feels like they are promoting it,” said freshman Lakeisha Rios.

  These brands also don’t have respect for many people who shop or want to shop at there store. The clothes they sell tend to run small and don’t have any really cute clothes that fit customers that are seen as ‘bigger’, and this has been a problem for years now. They have also had many racial problems such as the H&M, ‘Monkey Scandal” where a black child wore a jacket that said, “coolest monkey in the jungle’ and many people took that as a racial thing. The brand had to end up making a public apology.

  “Knowing that completely changes my opinion. I always thought that the size range wasn’t good enough, but I didn’t know that the people that make the clothes could die. I think they should definitely spend more money on fixing that or get shut down,” said freshman Bella Crescione.

  These brands get away with a lot because many people don’t know what goes on behind the scenes. People can still shop, support, and buy from these brands. But knowing what happens, a good alternative is to support small or startup businesses and go thrifting for clothes.