# what do you guys think of this 13 year old fashion prodigy? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 23, 2011, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-guys-think-of-this-13-year-old-fashion-prodigy/603829 "2011-11-23T02:08:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Ashes\_Ashes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/db5fbb/32.png) [@Ashes\_Ashes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashes_Ashes)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2011, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-guys-think-of-this-13-year-old-fashion-prodigy/603829/41 "2011-11-24T13:31:26Z")
Just let her be. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2011, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-guys-think-of-this-13-year-old-fashion-prodigy/603829/42 "2011-11-24T14:18:30Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > I heard her “Wait Wait” bit and she does seem pretty grounded, but it’s _fashion_ we’re talking about here. Good on her for taking the initiative and writing about something she loves - and writing well - but “teenaged girl obsessed with fashion” is not exactly a world-changer. Tavi’s story more or less breaks down to “teenage girl has popular blog, world-at-large notices.” How many teenagers have similar blogs? Probably all of them. The only difference is that the people that populate the adult world of her niche have noticed her. Good for her, but what she’s doing doesn’t seem all that different than what other teenagers with blogs do (including the picture overload of “stuff I like today”). ---
**Author:** ![GovernmentMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e9c0ed/32.png) [@GovernmentMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GovernmentMan)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2011, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-guys-think-of-this-13-year-old-fashion-prodigy/603829/43 "2011-11-24T14:55:09Z")
Did you guys read her blog post about the Terry Richardson scandal? [http://www.thestylerookie.com/2010/05/few-observations.html](http://www.thestylerookie.com/2010/05/few-observations.html) This girl has got a great head on her shoulders. ---
**Author:** ![ladyfoxfyre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ad7895/32.png) [@ladyfoxfyre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ladyfoxfyre)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2011, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-guys-think-of-this-13-year-old-fashion-prodigy/603829/44 "2011-11-24T14:59:41Z")
That’s actually a really good post, **GovernmentMan**. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2011, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-guys-think-of-this-13-year-old-fashion-prodigy/603829/45 "2011-11-24T17:15:09Z")
It’s rambly and ungrammatical, but I like her point. Though I’d rather read Amy Klein when it comes to topics like that. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2011, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-guys-think-of-this-13-year-old-fashion-prodigy/603829/46 "2011-11-24T18:22:03Z")
**Tarwater** I don’t think having read or not read Sassy is in anyway relevant to my opinion. You’re basically saying that something or someone that draws on their pre-birth past can’t have any cultural relevance, or that ground covered before can’t or shouldn’t be again. That whole idea of “it’s been done before” is nonsense, should we all hang up our easels, guitars, synthesizers, sewing machines because everything we create and everything we laud directly refers to the musty old past? Fashion, art, music, culture, it’s all cyclical. I’m not too au fait with the fashion blog world as fashion doesn’t tend to interest me a heck of a lot. However, I know a kid with talent when I see one and kid’s got talent. I think as she matures she’ll find more and more of her own voice and might even be embarrassed by the more derivative elements of her earlier posting. Who knows, she might even become part of a paradigm that rejects that retroism for something else. It’s kinda too early to tell. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2011, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-guys-think-of-this-13-year-old-fashion-prodigy/603829/47 "2011-11-24T18:45:35Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#): > > \ she might even become part of a paradigm that rejects that retroism for something else. It’s kinda too early to tell. We can hope. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2011, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-guys-think-of-this-13-year-old-fashion-prodigy/603829/48 "2011-11-24T19:05:47Z")
> [@GovernmentMan](#): > > Did you guys read her blog post about the Terry Richardson scandal? > > [http://www.thestylerookie.com/2010/05/few-observations.html](http://www.thestylerookie.com/2010/05/few-observations.html) “I think the creepy pornographer is a creep.” Insightful. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2011, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-guys-think-of-this-13-year-old-fashion-prodigy/603829/49 "2011-11-25T00:04:02Z")
> [@Ashes\_Ashes](#): > > Just let her be. Impossible. We must mock and deride her until she is as bitter as we are. ---
**Author:** ![Tarwater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9de0a6/32.png) [@Tarwater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tarwater)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2011, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-guys-think-of-this-13-year-old-fashion-prodigy/603829/50 "2011-11-25T02:08:55Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#): > > **Tarwater** I don’t think having read or not read Sassy is in anyway relevant to my opinion. It’s extremely relevant. For reasons that I’ve already given. > [@](#): > > You’re basically saying that something or someone that draws on their pre-birth past can’t have any cultural relevance, or that ground covered before can’t or shouldn’t be again. That whole idea of “it’s been done before” is nonsense, should we all hang up our easels, guitars, synthesizers, sewing machines because everything we create and everything we laud directly refers to the musty old past? Fashion, art, music, culture, it’s all cyclical. Are guitars, easels, synthesizers, and sewing machines still culturally relevant? Yes, they are, obviously. A more apt analogy would draw comparisons between _Sassy_ and the pet rock. Or _Sassy_ and the lava lamp. Would you be exclaiming this girl’s intelligence and fashion savvy if she was writing a book titled, _Polyester Pants and Lava Lamps: How the Pet Rock Changed My Life_, and she was doing it in earnest, not in some kind of ironic or transgressive way? ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2011, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-guys-think-of-this-13-year-old-fashion-prodigy/603829/51 "2011-11-25T02:29:45Z")
> [@GovernmentMan](#): > > Did you guys read her blog post about the Terry Richardson scandal? > > [http://www.thestylerookie.com/2010/05/few-observations.html](http://www.thestylerookie.com/2010/05/few-observations.html) > > This girl has got a great head on her shoulders. Terry Richardson is a legend, a hero, a stallion of photography. This “style rookie” is a _complete hack_. She writes about Richardson like he’s some wicked ogre who kidnaps young, innocent maiden models and drags them to his cave. News flash, idiot - those models work with Richardson _because they want to_, and because he’s _good at what he does._ I absolutely cannot believe she has the nerve to rail on him like this. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2011, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-guys-think-of-this-13-year-old-fashion-prodigy/603829/52 "2011-11-25T02:30:12Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > “I think the creepy pornographer is a creep.” Insightful. Especially when Jezebel and every other similar blog out there is putting out anti Terry Richardson posts every time he so much as turns around. Seems like Tavi knows the party line pretty well. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2011, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-guys-think-of-this-13-year-old-fashion-prodigy/603829/53 "2011-11-27T12:06:08Z")
> [@HazelNutCoffee](#): > > Also, it seems to be fashionable to turn one’s nose up at fashion at the Dope, so I’m not surprised at the general attitude here And the fact you guys keep bringing up these ad hominems indicates that you don’t have an argument. My argument is simple: she doesn’t bring anything new. She’s praising old stuff that someone already created. She’s not even altering it. That’s not a fashion prodigy. That’s just a kid who knows what clothes she likes–something nearly every teenager does. No one has yet to provide an argument for why the hell she is important at all. And if you can’t bring that, then you are just doing the equivalent of freaking out over the kid who can play the piano at a young age. Great, wonderful for him. What does he bring to the world of music? What does this young lady bring to the world of fashion? If there’s a disdain here, it’s a disdain for people who become famous for not really doing anything. You want us to like this girl, it’s up to you to give us a reason. Don’t keep attacking us because we don’t agree with you. I was prepared to be wowed by this girl’s designs. I at least expected Project Runway level stuff from her. I got a girl taking scans of a book or screenshots of a movie and saying, “I like this.” ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2011, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-guys-think-of-this-13-year-old-fashion-prodigy/603829/54 "2011-11-27T20:18:11Z")
> [@Tarwater](#): > > It’s extremely relevant. For reasons that I’ve already given. > > Are guitars, easels, synthesizers, and sewing machines still culturally relevant? Yes, they are, obviously. > > A more apt analogy would draw comparisons between _Sassy_ and the pet rock. Or _Sassy_ and the lava lamp. Would you be exclaiming this girl’s intelligence and fashion savvy if she was writing a book titled, _Polyester Pants and Lava Lamps: How the Pet Rock Changed My Life_, and she was doing it in earnest, not in some kind of ironic or transgressive way? Yeah actually I would. I think a book like that would be fascinating if well written as her blog tends to be. I would think that picking something that’s no longer culturally relevant to be influenced by is a good thing but hey YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2011, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-guys-think-of-this-13-year-old-fashion-prodigy/603829/55 "2011-11-27T21:16:34Z")
I expect that she is being influenced by the cultural ride she is presently taking. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2011, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-guys-think-of-this-13-year-old-fashion-prodigy/603829/56 "2011-11-27T21:21:47Z")
13 year old girl has opinions. News at 11. ---
**Author:** ![Maeglin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Maeglin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maeglin)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2011, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-guys-think-of-this-13-year-old-fashion-prodigy/603829/57 "2011-11-27T21:24:57Z")
> [@ladyfoxfyre](#): > > You could say the same thing about anyone who studies, say, Greek literature, and find equal justification for dismissing their opinions because it was “out of print before [they were] born”. Not quite. This is a very good example from which you draw the wrong conclusion entirely. There is only room enough in the world for a few people to make a meaningful contribution to the study of ancient Greek literature. There are high barriers to entering this subject in the first place, and the pressure to create something completely new out of material that mankind has been poring over for _thousands_ of years is high. Some people get away with redigesting the same old pap, but they can’t get away with this until after they’ve done some serious time mastering the discipline. They are also second-rate and certainly not famous. But they did at least spend ten years or so earning the right to be second-rate. I can all but guarantee that absolutely none of them are nostalgic for the days of Demosthenes. Tavi is an example of the opposite phenomenon. The discipline of fashion (or whatever you want to call it) self-evidently does not have high barriers to entry. The author self-evidently has not done her time. She does recycle some good ideas from 20 years ago, which by itself is no crime if perhaps unremarkable. The contrived nostalgia is more depressing. I think that **Tarwater’s** analysis is spot-on. It’s a shame that already a bright girl could be such a shill. Even if we believe for a moment that what she contributes is fresh and original, perhaps this says more about the quality of the minds who devote themselves to writing about mainstream fashion than anything else. ---
**Author:** ![GovernmentMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e9c0ed/32.png) [@GovernmentMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GovernmentMan)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2012, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-guys-think-of-this-13-year-old-fashion-prodigy/603829/58 "2012-01-06T04:18:39Z")
Totally forgot about this thread. (I don’t check on here too often) Why are you guys hating on a sweet, intelligent girl? ---
**Author:** ![Electric\_Warrior](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@Electric\_Warrior](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electric_Warrior)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2012, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-guys-think-of-this-13-year-old-fashion-prodigy/603829/59 "2012-01-06T06:13:46Z")
**GovernmentMan** , I actually really like Tavi, but it’s a little disingenuous to make a thread titled “_what do you guys think of_” her, and then get upset when people offer, well, what they think of her. As for what I like about her - I like that her blog is written in a style that makes it fun to read and that she doesn’t just obsess over designer clothing but takes her style from vintage and thrifted and gifted clothing too. I also think her fashion posts are fun, especially when she posts her outfits alongside their inspirations. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2012, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-guys-think-of-this-13-year-old-fashion-prodigy/603829/60 "2012-01-07T14:50:56Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > “I think the creepy pornographer is a creep.” Insightful. You’re just jealous because you don’t have insightful insight like her! 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-guys-think-of-this-13-year-old-fashion-prodigy/603829.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-guys-think-of-this-13-year-old-fashion-prodigy/603829.md?page=4)