High School Girls Spend Thousands for the Perfect Prom Night

For their story about “Extreme Proms,” Good Morning America followed around a “suburban New York sophomore” during her quest for Prom Perfection. How much did she spend in preparation of High School’s most glamourous evening? $3,300. Excuse me, how much?!

To be fair, her dress only cost $1,700 and the sum total of preparation — $500 teeth whitening, $95 hair extensions, $100 manicure, a $100 facial, makeup, tanning, eyebrow threading, matching jewelry and accessories — make up for the rest. When GMA spoke with high school girls and their mothers, their point kept coming back to a fear of “mean girls” in high school, and the mocking that will come from them if you show up to prom looking like shit. According to them, Prom night has transformed into a competition to “look perfect.” The girls interviewed placed a lot of the blame on television shows like Gossip Girl and Keeping Up With The Kardashians saying, “we want to be like that, a celebrity for one day.”

I remember the look on my father’s face when my mother and I admitted the price tag of my high school prom dress: a “modest” $300. I can’t imagine his reaction if it were ten times that amount — and in a recession, no less! I thought the expensive antics on MTV’s Sweet Sixteen were limited to a handful of lucky rich girls, but it would otherwise. Is this something you’ve heard of happening where you live — or is Good Morning America over-generalizing entire country after interviewing a handful of people in one town?

What kind of message is being sent to girls at an impressionable age when parents are willing to drop thousands on a single night? Are we putting too much stress on attaining perfection for one night? Would you spend upwards of $3,000 on a prom dress? If you have, was it worth it? Pictures, please!