Earlier this week, I was doing some online shopping for a new baseball hat when I stumbled upon Brandy Melville’s website. They had a pink hat I thought was absolutely adorable, and I had to explore more of the site. I’ve heard of the brand before, but there are no stores where I live, and the brand doesn’t generate much buzz in my social circle. This brand’s claim to fame is “one size fits all” clothing. Less than five minutes into browsing the site, I discovered one-size is more like sizes extra-small to small. That definitely set off a few warning signals to me. Curiosity got the best of me and I ended up browsing the brand’s Instagram page and I certainly wasn’t surprised at what I saw: young, mostly white, very slim girls with long, straight, blonde hair and dainty faces. That wasn’t what upset me. What upset me were the numerous comments below these posts from women (ranging from middle school girls all the way to adults) saying “I wish I was skinny enough to fit in these clothes” or “Why can’t I look like that?”

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not here to shame thin women. Thin women face problems when it comes to finding clothes that fit and make them feel confident, as most women do. Just to reiterate: there is nothing wrong with being thin or looking like the girls on Brandy Melville’s website or Instagram page. All women are real women! I have a problem with Brandy Melville claiming their clothes are one-size-fits-all when in reality, that’s absolutely not true. If the company wants to market to thin women, I say go for it, but they need to be open about their target group of consumers. Plus size stores are a thing, it only stands to reason that stores for thin women should exist too. I don’t believe the clothes or sizes of their merchandise are causing problems: it’s the message the company sends.

With their deceitful marketing, Brandy Melville is perpetuating the self-image crisis affecting countless girls and women. The brand is creating an elitist, unrealistic, body-shaming culture when they insinuate only one body type is "normal." There’s a sentiment that being able to wear the brand is a status symbol: being a certain size and having certain features equates to being good enough, and that’s a dangerous message. Your pants size does not determine your self worth, and neither does your hair type, but it’s hard to believe that when companies like Brandy Melville are telling you the opposite. Further research led me to reports of customers being told to not try on the clothes in stores because a salesperson told them they were too big to wear them.

I even found an article stating that at one California high school, girls associated the brand with popularity and whether or not they wore Brandy Melville clothes affected how their peers treated them. I also noticed the clothes were quite overpriced (in my opinion) for what they are, which brings up the separate issue of being wealthy enough to afford the brand in the first place. Still, grown women criticizing their own bodies on the brand’s social media pages shows that maturity doesn’t always provide immunity from the company’s message that size equals self-worth. To me, it is absolutely unacceptable for a company to perpetuate this harmful message. Eating disorders are rampant among girls and young women, the last thing we need are clothing companies fueling unhealthy behaviors by telling us we’re not good enough if we’re not a certain size.

So, what should we do about this? I’m not going to tell you to burn any items you may have bought from Brandy Melville, whether or not you choose to buy from them is completely up to you. If their clothes suit you and make you feel confident, wear them! At the same time, we need to be aware of the destructive message this company sends, and understand that they are dead wrong about their concept of body image.

Your self-worth goes way beyond whether you fit in Brandy Melville clothes or look like one of their models, and you’re worth so much more than a size on a label. Do I think if Brandy Melville openly marketed to thin women, these problems would completely go away? Sadly, probably not, but if they were honest about who they’re marketing to, it would eliminate a lot of the elitism and shaming surrounding the company. Not to mention, it would be beneficial to expand their range of models beyond white, blonde women. Perhaps that would lessen their message of “if you don’t look like this, you’re not beautiful.”

In the end, I chose not to buy the pink baseball hat from Brandy Melville because I personally don’t want to support a brand that’s contributing to hurting women’s self-esteem. And, because I found a similar hat somewhere else for quite a bit cheaper.