Forever 21 CEO: We Don't Have Designs on Pregnant Teens

Posted by Sheila Shayon on July 27, 2010 11:00 AM

Fashion retailer Forever 21's debut collection of maternity wear, Love 21, has some concerned that the brand is targeting (and thus condoning) pregnant teenagers.

Love 21 is now available in a select locations in Arizona, Alaska, California, Utah and Texas, which also happen to be the U.S. states with the highest rates of teen pregnancy, according to a January 2010 report from the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy.

Forever 21 EVP Larry Meyer responded: "Forever 21 did not create, design or distribute Love 21 Maternity to target, or appeal specifically to pregnant teens. Any relationship between teen pregnancy rates and the locations of our stores is unintentional."

While the "21" in the maternity collection's name echoes the parent brand, the flap also begs the question: so what if Love 21 appeals to moms-to-be of all ages? Don't teens deserve fashionable maternity wear, too?

Take it from us: Staying fashionable while pregnant tends to increase the budget in tandem with the belly size, so Love 21's $8.80 cropped leggings and $19.80 cardigans would be welcomed by any mom-to-be.

Controversy is nothing new for the brand, which was founded in 1984 by Don Chang, a South Korean immigrant. It has a track record of fashion designers balking at its copycat designs, prompting lawsuits from the likes of Anna Sui and Balenciaga.

Chang's original retail moniker of Fashion 21 changed to Forever 21 when its range of trendy, moderately-priced clothes won favor with customers under 21, although it has expanded beyond teen apparel in recent years.

Today, the retail chain bills itself as affordable, one-stop shopping for all, with men, kids and women's apparel sections, where high school and college-age shoppers can be found browsing the racks next to career women and moms.

Do you buy Forever 21's side of this debate, or even care? Let us know with a comment below.

Continued… BTW, Victoria Secrets WAS geared towards women until they found out that teen girls (and now gay men) are into frilly things. So instead of creating a separate store with moderate wear for teen girls same as Gap, VS put all age demographics in the same store and split the store in three as if that limits the flow of traffic throughout the store in general! Now you have tween girls desiring to wear thongs, low cut bras, and lace at 12 when they shouldn’t even be thinking about being sexy let alone sex at that age! And you say that’s ok; let them do business it’s up to the parents and neighbors to singlehandedly curve that type of behavior--how JT? Allowing them to dress older than they are perpetuates a different problem…

Kids are growing up way too fast at the hands of retailers and advertisers who sleep well at night while encouraging young girls especially to become prey for older men. Young girls are not mature, confident or responsible enough to say “no” or to be discreet about what they show and share. If that were the case and all parents had to say was no, then teen pregnancy would not be off the charts as of 2010!

Reality check: Forever 21 is NOT coming out with a better (more modest, yet stylish) line of maternity clothes that your wife can fit. They are targeting teen girls whose waistlines grow from 6 to a 12 not from 12 to 20. They are also targeting consumers who want to be “forever 21”; footloose and fancy free, promiscuous, rebellious and without limits.

To help you along in life, I don’t have teens or children. I’m actually the one in the classrooms and in the hallways of schools working with YOUR teens (or soon-to-be-teens) from making Victoria every boy or now other girl’s “secret”, Calvin Klein something other than a steamy poster on a city bus; more specifically, keeping kids from having oral sex, group sex and just sex in the bathrooms, locker rooms, in cars or behind the security trailer in between classes or games while you and the wife are at work! These are the same kids that video tape everything and post it on YouTube for kicks.

The way I see it, raising kids is a team effort. If you remember anything about being a teen, you know that peer pressure is a beast and even though rules were set at home, you were a different person in school and explored the obvious in college. Since you’re in your 30s, you may recall that if nothing else, there was a lot of consistency and less exposure to all things sex and violence. Whatever parents said was reinforced at school, with the neighbors and with other adults in the community; this not so anymore.

To give retailers the right to sell without holding them accountable for the affects of their sales is to give retailers the right to raise YOUR kids at your expense!

A Sauer says:

This would be an odd intentional move from a brand that prints "John 3:16" on the bottom of its Forever-21-branded shopping bags, something Forever 21 PR has explained as "demonstration of the [brand] owners' faith."

July 27, 2010 04:47 PM #

Adela says:

What I don´t understand is one thing: if they did not launch this line targeting young people does this mean that they did it for mature women who happen to be pregnant? Because I doubt that a women who is not in their target audience and does not usually buy their products is going to start shopping there just because they have launched a maternity line. I don´t know much about how they are perceived in the US, but if they are brand for teenagers, I don´t think they will appeal to a more mature audience just because they have launched a line that might fit their needs.

July 28, 2010 05:29 AM #

Jailia Harmon says:

I completely agreee!

July 28, 2010 09:56 AM #

To be "unintentional" in product placement is to admit that you have a weak marketing team and plan or that you are skirting the issue with PR jargon. No established brand does product placement haphazardly. Even small business owners must do some research in order to be effective at product placement.

Forever 21 is being negligent in their faith as well as in the area of social responsibility. Since Forever 21’s primary target market is teens, then they are encouraging teens to grow up too fast (pretending to be 21, promiscuous, and parents instead of being teens, focusing on school and remaining abstinent until marriage).

This is no different from the recording artists who say that their music is for “grown folks”. The music is laced with sexual innuendo, rebellion, pride, lawlessness, and lasciviousness. Grown folks eventually get to the point where acting like a child is no longer an option so who else is more inclined and has the wherewithal to indulge in this kind of behavior except youth and young adults?

As an educator, I understand that in many ways adults teach and encourage indirectly as much as directly. Unfortunately, it’s the indirect suggestions that young people take to heart.

While I totally understand that businesses must profit in order to remain, (to A Sauer's point) a person of Christian faith should have a different set of values. If selling a product regardless of effect is of greater importance than God’s word then faith is no longer relevant.

There is judgment in putting profit before people...

July 28, 2010 10:00 AM #

JT says:

I find myself seeing another side of the coin on this one. It seems to me that at the core a retailer is filling a marketing niche. Whether or not teens become pregnant has no bearing on a retailer. the fact that teens are pregnant and looking for fashionable clothing is the bottom line for a retailer. My wife had two kids in our thirties and still hated almost every item that was for sale in a maternity section. If forever 21 comes out with a better line or more contemporary, then they deserve the success that brings them. This is like condemning a condom company for manufacturing condoms. Dumb drama! If you have an issue with the rates of teen pregnancy, then educate your teen about about how to avoid this issue. Don't condemn someone for being a retailer, suport the positive choices of your own teen and ask your neighbor to do the same!

July 28, 2010 10:26 AM #

Hello “neighbor”!

Fortunately, there are many boutique retailers that create stylish designs for pregnant mothers, e.g., A PEA IN THE POD so defaulting to a line of clothing that is slanted towards looking like you’re 21 when you’re 13 or a married woman in your 30s is a real mind bender JT!

Clearly, you missed the point in terms of filling a market niche. Forever 21 admittedly said that launching their new line relative to pregnant teens was purely a coincidence or “unintentional” (not!). This is the problem with society: It’s okay for business owners to make money from social ills while others who don’t make as much money work tirelessly to prevent the same ills. Retailers like Forever 21 make it extremely difficult for parents and even educators to do their jobs. Condom makers are no different. If you don’t have sex, you have 0% chance of getting pregnant and 0% chance of contracting a sexually transmitted disease (short of the HIV virus, which can be transmitted through needle use or blood transfusions). So making condoms for the purpose of having “safe” sex automatically condones having sex. Drinking alcohol “responsibly” still condones the consumption of alcohol. Showing valid ID to get access to cigarettes still condones smoking. Dressing like you’re 21 when you’re 12 automatically puts teens in precarious, unsafe situations.

What does a CHILD (under 21) know about being sexy, having sex or sexuality let alone being a parent or being responsible? And how can they curve their curiosity or capacity when everything and everyone around them including other adults tell them it’s OK as long as you show that you’re “responsible”?

July 28, 2010 12:15 PM #

July 28, 2010 12:16 PM #

S.Shayon says:

The best thing about all this conversation is that Forever 21 should hear it all. It's provocative and raises the core question about marketing goals and messaging coalescing with a brand's core values. Given the Christian attribution on their shopping bags - Forever 21 apparently must be prepared to do so.
S. Shayon

July 28, 2010 01:09 PM #

Amen to that Shayon!

July 28, 2010 10:08 PM #

wamaqi says:

No teenager will get pregnant so she can buy cool clothes. All Forever 21 is doing is saying if you happen to get pregnant, despite what you have been told about it, come to for clothes that will make you look and feel good. Being pregnant as a teen is no walk in the park. It must be hard. I don't think anybody celebrates it or condones it. Forever 21 just know that in the lives of their target audience many things can happen including getting pregnant. Should that happen to you, while all around you condone you look good while at it. That is good marketing. They neither have to defend it nor explain it to any one.

July 29, 2010 07:16 AM #

Please! Grownups get pregnant to be vindictive, to garner financial support from the government and/or a wealthy love AND even for attention! Teens are inclined to get pregnant more so for attention because they don’t feel loved, nurtured or cared for AND because marketers have convinced them that having sex is “cool” and so is being sexy! Since teens are immature they don’t have a true sense of being responsible nor do they realize the consequences of having unprotected sex.

Until reality sets in, expecting mothers think being pregnant is cool because they get loads of attention and gifts. If they can look cute while pregnant all the better because the baby daddy isn’t paying attention anymore, but maybe some other unsuspecting teen will be attracted and pay attention? If the baby is “cute” teen mothers bask in all the accolades they get from total strangers. When all the noise dies down and they are alone with their child they find it hard to reconcile all the attention they garner as a result of the baby with the crying, tantrums, sleepless nights and limited funds or support from (usually the father) of the child. One of my students (a senior in high school) didn’t get the message the first or second time that being a teen mother wasn’t cool. She relished in the attention. Her conversations like other teen mothers I’ve taught centered on looking good and being attractive not so that they could graduate and go to college, but so that they can keep a guy’s attention and subsequently feel loved…

July 31, 2010 11:56 AM #

CONTINUED…To make being pregnant both convenient and comfortable in any regard is to encourage the behavior. When I was growing up pregnant girls were instantly sent to a special school where they learned to prepare for motherhood. Once they got pregnant, they lost the right to focus on themselves same as an adult mother. Their stay was to see about that child. Today, there are daycare centers in high school and girls throw baby showers (at school) for their classmates. It’s like watching them play with Ken and Barbie instead of being mothers.

It’s clear by your response Wamaqi that you’ve never hear the discussions of pregnant teens. You speak of teen pregnancy like it’s an expected part of a child’s development same as pimples.

The selfish thing for you, Forever 21 and anyone else to do is look at this from a business perspective…Everything—including the life of a child—should not be processed like a business case study. After all, once a sale is made neither you nor Forever 21 has to see about either child’s livelihood. Isn’t the child’s social and emotional development and success more important than being fashionable for nine months?

July 31, 2010 12:01 PM #