Accentuate the Positive

The hunt for all the accessories an 11 year old glamour-puss could desire begins at Claire's Boutique.

Have you been to Claire's? It is enough to give you a seizure disorder.

It is also a brilliant concept.

It completely consumes the heart and mind of an 11 year old girl - who is shopping with her mother's money - and her mother's empathy for what it was like to suddenly feel self conscious about your looks and worried that you would not keep up - suddenly the girl you used to swap nail polish with is your competition. Every girl for herself!

The place bombards your senses with loud music and lots of hot pink and black and animal print and marabou - to appeal to the emerging and fickle good girl/bad girl image that the prepubescent, hormonally-charged young things flit through the door with.

Floor to ceiling hair notions, locker accoutrement's, stow-away-in-your backpack hair brushes and mirrors and makeup and phone accessories.

Outrageous costume jewelry, scarves, purses, backpack decorations, patches - all that glitters and all that is coveted by the average red-blooded American pre-teen.

And they very slyly provide little pink fabric collapsible buckets - light and comfy to dangle on a little 6th grade arm - and easily capable of holding way more loot than the average pair of 11 year old hands.

A great big sign - BUY 3, GET 2 FREE- beckons my gal to the vast selection of hair thingies.

We simply must have ponytail holders and barrettes and clips and bands of every color and shape and embellishment so that we stand out in every crowd. As if her platinum blond locks on their own do not scream out her Marilyn Monroe-ness when she bops into a room?

And when the little pink bucket is nearly bulging with stuff - a disturbingly pretty young man comes to have a look, and quickly assesses what other things we'd be crazy not to consider in order to qualify for another two-fer, or to get in on two more free things by placing just one more hair extension in the bucket.

No fewer than $52 later, I exit Claire's Boutique and think I have found the latest competition for crack.