South High holds 1,050 students, each individual in their own way, and each with an individual closet. Gone are the days of puka shell necklaces and tube tops, so, what are students at South actually wearing? In a survey of about 200 students, students were asked what clothes they found popular amongst their peers.

“Converse, they are super popular” responded senior, Mackenzie Barber.

Sophomore Madison Greissmeyer said, “Off the shoulder tops and jean skirts are really popular among the girls at South.”

Freshman, Jon Meyer added, “Boys wear a lot of Nike and Jordans usually.”

Many students though, claimed they’d rather be dressed casually at school, “I don’t really wear anything too fashionable,” explained sophomore Melany Rice, “but I don’t like to wear boring clothes, my only requirements are that it is comfortable and clean.”

What we wear can also affect how we see others and ourselves. According to a study by The Journal of Experimental Psychology, subjects that wore white “doctors” coats performed better on tests than subjects that wore street clothes. It was later concluded that the subjects that wore the doctor’s coats performed better because they felt more confident. Confidence plays a large role when we take tests, and tests occur quite often in a school setting. In a school-wide survey, 48.9% of students said to do better on tests when they feel confident in themselves, and 43.5% claimed that the way they look and dress affect their confidence.

When asked why, students, some of whom will remain anonymous, said, “When I feel self-conscious, my energy becomes negative, creating my self-esteem and motivation [to become] low.”

Freshman Karen Bergen added, “I think that if I feel like I look good that day, that it boosts my confidence overall in anything/most things I do.”

Another student added how they’ve been bullied by peers on the way they look, and how often they’ve noticed others being teased for their clothing choices as well,

“…I’ve seen so many girls bullied because of what they wear because it’s too revealing because they’re covering up too much, too girly, too masculine, I just hate it.”

A target of this type of bullying added,

“I have been bullied in the 4 grade until 7th grade after awhile I believed that I was ugly and my self-esteem went down pretty fast.”

This and all forms of bullying should be abolished because if our confidence affects how we perform in school and if our clothes also affect our confidence, then does they way we dress affect school performance? Attacking someone for what they look like and wear sounds like an issue of the past, but many more students responded with the ways they’ve been singled out.

In order to bring more positivity, South students were asked that if their clothes affect their confidence, what outfits boost it?

Senior, Angela Yang replied,

“I think the way that I dress every day plays a huge role in confidence. When I curl my hair or put makeup on, I’m a little more confident than when I’m wearing sweats and a bun.”

Sophomore Austin Reynoso added an interesting perspective, explaining why suits boost his confidence,

“They, for me are a sense of power. You see politicians on the television serving you and leading the masses. Wearing a suit makes me feel as if I am like them, and I too am the one in power.”

Whether you love wearing sweatpants or dress shirts from J. Crew, what you wear can tell a lot about you, what does your outfit say?