I think it's safe to say that one of the most popular films late 80's babies and 90's babies grew up on is "Mean Girls". The soon to be twelve year old film is hands down an iconic piece that remains super relevant in modern day pop culture. This isn't just your typical early 2000's, teenage flick, this one of the most quotable, hilarious, memorable films of the last decade, exposing the good, the bad, and the ugly sides of high school.

In 2004, the film mean girls was released starring former teen star Lindsay Lohan alongside Saturday Night Live divas Tina Fey and Amy Poelher, Rachel McAdams, and many more. Lindsay starred as sixteen year old Cady Heron, a newcomer at North Shore High School who was homeschooled all her life residing in Africa for twelve years with her zoologist parents. Upon entering high school, Cady is so culture shocked by this new environment and soon meets two social outcast friends, Janis Ian and Damian Leigh. The two "Best People You'll Ever Meet" show her the ropes around North Shore, including the many cliques that make up the collective school.


Eventually, Cady runs across "The Plastics", a trio of stereotypical, prissy, prim, and popular high school girls that run the hallways of North Shore. Gretchen Wieners, Karen Smith, and the notorious, head bitch in charge and queen bee of the bunch, Regina George. What began as a mildly "innocent" spy job to report back information to Janis, who hates Regina's guts since middle school, turns into a head on mission to take down Regina George by Cady who later finds herself obsessed and turning into the person she was trying to destroy: a "mean girl".

What "Mean Girls" taught me was that contrary to popular belief, there's no one representation of a "mean girl". In the film, Cady's friend Janis was being just as much of a mean girl as she accused Regina ("The Life Ruiner") of being. Even Cady turned into a mean girl on her quest to slay the dragon that was Regina George. We've been bombarded with these images that have created mental and social stereotypes of what "mean girls" look like to the point we've failed to realize that's there's no one way or identity of being one. Once the Burn Book was exposed to the student body, secrets came out showing that "The Plastics" weren't the only girls being mean to others. The so called "Girl on Girl Crime" (coined by Ms. Norbury) included all the girls and cliques in the junior class; The Desperate Wannabes, the Cool Asians, Girls Who Eat Their Feelings, and others.

After the school wide girl fight, Ms. Norbury, played by Tina Fey, asked the junior girls sitting in the gym bleachers if they had ever been talked about by another girl, and of course everyone raised their hands. I mean that's why they were there. On the flip side, Ms. Norbury asked "How many of you have ever talked about a friend behind her back?" With hesitance, all of the girls raised their hands. This scene automatically made me reminiscence back to my high school junior and senior years.


I wouldn't say that I was a "mean girl", but I definitely had a few "mean girl" moments back in the day. I recall many times when some of my companions and I would talk behind each others backs but act like victims once it was revealed we were being talked about or being done wrong. There was even one particular group of girls that we thought we would have considered to be "The Plastics". Like the student body of North Shore High School saw the drama between Regina and company, we saw the drama between these girls unravel as well. But similar to the characters in film we also had our internal issues with one another, just like the other group of girls in our class.

While some of us have had our "mean girl" moments, actual "mean girls" like Regina George do exist. So do "mean boys" and "mean boy" moments, let's not rule that out either or pretend that gossip and drama is only exclusive to young women. I think some of us get so caught up in thinking about how wrong we've been done, we forget the times we've done wrong to others. We're so entrapped in images of what a "monster" is supposed to look like that we can't identify the monster we've become.

Besides the sheer comedy and classic phrases, "Mean Girls" certainly gave some valuable life lessons on friendships and honesty. Here are some of my favorite quotes from the movie:

This past Tuesday, I had the opportunity to attend the Ujamaa Expo at the Maryam Mosque in celebration of the fourth day of Kwanzaa, called "Ujamaa". Ujamaa is significant of "cooperative economics", which means that the participants of the holiday engage in creating their own businesses, supporting each other's businesses, and keeping their money circulating within the community in order to build and maintain facilities for community progression.

Every Labor Day weekend in Chicago is the annual African Festival of the Arts. Last year, I was honored to be apart of the amazing four day event as a model for the fashion show. This year, I layed back and enjoyed the food, people, performances, artwork, supported some vendors and the beautiful, positive vibes. Although this is only my second year attending the African Festival, this is definitely one of my favorite summer festivals in Chicago.


Held in Chicago's south side Washington Park, the festival has been around for the last twenty six years and celebrates the African diasporic cultures across the globe through the foundation and creation of art. The festival has different "villages" named after continental African empires such as Kush, Nubia, Timbuktu, and Songhay. There are local and international performers and artists that come to perform and celebrate promoting positive and unifying music that's enjoyable for the entire family and people of all ages.

What I love most about this festival is the overall positivity and embracing of African/Black cultures. In a society where everything Black and "Afrocentric" is shamed and devalued, this event gives people who represent different backgrounds of the African diaspora to come together. I love the fact that this event also promotes cooperative economics for local businesses, family, community, and identity. The last day of the festival is on Labor Day, I highly recommend everyone go out and enjoy.

Along with the dress, I thought it would be snazzy to pair it with some white, open toe kitten heels (also vintage, courtesy of my mother), white, lace, open fingered gloves I wore for a vintage shoot I did a few years ago, a pearl necklace, red patent leather belt, red scarf to add a touch of rockabilly, and a straw, strawberry clutch I've had in my closet for the longest. A few years ago, I bought these amazing vinyl record, Motown earrings but I lost one of them due to not wearing an earring back (I hate that). I wore the lone vinyl earring in one ear, and a pearl earring in another.

I couldn't really pinpoint which exact era the ensemble captured. I thought it made a mid to late 1950's/early 1960's statement, but someone else commented that it was also very 1940's-esque. All in all, I really loved this look and I'm glad I finally got a chance to sport it before summer's official end, especially seeing that this is the last weekend to wear white shoes (I'll probably still wear white though :) )

The dress has a really elegant brocade like design on it and as I mentioned previously, a bustier like design in the front. To continue my vintage theme I had going on, I rocked this dress with my white Coach shoes, a few pieces of colorful jewelry, my Dooney & Bourke heart purse (hiding in the photos), and a floral scarf. This look remained bold and colorful just like I like my ensembles to be, but was pretty simple for my style. I do like to tone it down sometimes and just go with the "less is more" look every now and then.