Founders Say New Clothing Line Allows Girls to 'Be Kids'

Two cousins and mothers of little girls who hate form-fitting clothes and dresses recently started a clothing line that falls somewhere between booty and baggy shorts.

The line, “Girls Will Be,” launched in July with comfy T-shirts with gender-neutral images and phrases: baseball, airplanes, earnest declarations like “I am me” and “Be awesome.” But the line itself is definitively not gender-neutral. How come?

“We wanted something in the middle,” said co-founder Maya Choksi. “The only thing that IDs it for a girl is the tag inside.”

“We went to great pains to design a shirt between tight and boxy,” said her partner, Laura Burns. “We were trying to capture an age-appropriate shirt that would allow girls to just be kids.”

Veronica Arreola, assistant director at the Center for Research on Women and Gender at the University of Illinois at Chicago, told CNN that “Boys and girls need more options so that they can be themselves,” she says. “Then we are not faced with these overwhelming stereotypes that keep girls and boys in these well-defined boxes.” It would be awesome if the line was for all kids who feel pressure to conform, not just girls. Maybe in the future?