Styling Self-Expression

Every day of high school, my friends and I had to wear a white polo, a blue pleated skirt, knee-high socks, and Sperrys. This may seem like a minor inconvenience, but in reality, this uniform isolated a lot of our self-expression and confidence. This led me to focus even more on how I dressed outside of school and ultimately, finding myself through my connection with fashion literacy. Fashion literacy can be defined as the ability to express yourself through the creative process of fashion, using the clothes you style yourself in every day as the pieces to show the world who you are. I was inspired by others who dress in a way unique to them which led me to do the same for others' styles. So, I was determined to style myself the way I wanted, rather than by following trends. Even though I was judged along the way, I became more confident from finding my style. This is something my friends always admired about me. So, I always loved to dress them and help them pick out outfits for when we weren’t in our school uniforms to make them more confident. This is why fashion is such a big part of who I am. My room is filled with cutouts from different Vogue editions to represent and manifest my dream of working there one day, continuing my passion for fashion literacy.

While going through the process of discovering my style in high school, I saw my role model and favorite content creator, Emma Chamberlain, thrifting in a YouTube video. I admired her for her ability to create her own personal style, which is what I had always wanted for myself. She helped my young self find my identity through fashion and truly influenced me to shape not only my own but also my friends' style. In Deborah Brandt’s essay, “Sponsors of Literacy” she states, “Sponsors, as I have come to think of them, are any agents, local or distant, concrete or abstract, who enable, support, teach, model, as well as recruit, regulate, suppress, or withhold literacy—and gain advantage by it in some way” (Brandt 166). Emma Chamberlain was what Brandt described as a distant sponsor to me, which is what eventually led me to be a sponsor to my friends in fashion literacy. When I first started thrifting, I was frustrated because I assumed I would easily find pieces that felt like me. However, the more I started to thrift, I realized I just had to look with an open mind. This helped me constantly try out different types of styles to see what allowed me to feel most like myself. Even though I was judged along the way, I became more confident from finding my style. 

The moment I was able to use my experience with fashion literacy to influence others happened when I took my friends to the thrift store for the first time. I felt excited to help them find their own style that made them feel confident. When we walked in the thrift shop, the air smelled like laundry detergent, old clothes, moth balls, and perfume. I saw different people looking at all types of clothing from full and unorganized clothing racks. Accessories and shoes of all sizes were thrown into clothing bins. I heard the sounds of clothing hangers being moved and people talking. I could see my friends, who had never been thrifting, were overwhelmed and didn’t know where to start, so I guided them to the jeans first. I felt the coarse textures of denim while holding up different pairs to show them. They all talked about how they wanted to start wearing low-rise jeans, but they were nervous about what people would think. I told them, “If it’s going to make you happy, it doesn’t matter what other people think”. So I helped each of them find a pair. By the time we got to the aisle with tops, they became more comfortable with looking around. They were each picking out tops I normally wouldn’t see them wear. As I watched them smile and grab more items, I felt joy knowing how confident these clothes would make them. I consider myself what Brandt describes as a sponsor to my friends when it comes to fashion literacy because I support and encourage them to use fashion to find their own style as a way to find themselves. There was so much more to this experience than just shopping. It was a moment in time of self discovery for them, showing that fashion is not just simply items of clothing we wear, it is a form of expressing who you are as an individual.

I used fashion as a way to advocate for my friends, allowing them to express who they are to the world. I wanted them to feel the same way I felt when I started to discover my style and the confidence it’s brought me. While before my friends saw the thrift store as a place with old, used clothes that had no worth. I showed them that, instead, it’s a place filled with so many ideas where people can find themselves. Now, these girls all thrift regularly and dress in a way that expresses themselves, which makes them confident. Not only have I physically seen a change in them, through their outfits, but also in their personalities, which have become stronger and filled with joy because of their growth in confidence. Brandt mentions that “Sponsors are a tangible reminder that literacy learning throughout history has always required permission, sanction, assistance, coercion, or, at minimum, contact with existing trade routes” (Brandt 167). This means that the process of learning about literacy happens through interactions with other people who influence them on a topic. Literacy isn’t something people can grow alone in. This demonstrates how I acted as a sponsor to my friends by influencing their growth in fashion literacy. 

In conclusion, fashion literacy has taught me that fashion is a powerful form of self-expression. Style has always been a part of every individual's identity and evolves with them as they grow. Finding my personal style is what helped me find myself while growing up, by allowing me to express myself through the clothes I wear. YouTuber Emma Chamberlain was a distant sponsor to me in that sense, giving me the tools to become a sponsor to my own friends in fashion literacy. As Brandt explains in her essay, sponsors are people who influence others and through the expression of fashion I was able to pass this influence on from Emma Chamberlain to my friends. I continue to grow and share my passion for fashion literacy, and one day, I hope to be a sponsor in fashion literacy not only to people in my life, but to all around the world through my dream job at Vogue. 

Works Cited

Brandt, Deborah. “Sponsors of Literacy.” College Composition and Communication, vol. 49, no. 2, 1998, pp. 165–85. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/358929. Accessed 17 Sept. 2025.

Grammarly used for grammar corrections