By Maria Dassum

Middle school is a very complex time in the lives of young people. It’s a period of self-discovery where your true identity is being challenged by the fact that you should “fit in” with a certain standards imposed by society. However, whatever “fitting in” means, by the time these kids reach middle school the only important thing is to be part of something.  The rules are settled and whoever wishes to be popular nowadays has to fulfill them entirely.  Even though, things may change easily in the future; society imposes items that are in fashion in order to be part of this exclusive community.

For instance, there was a time where having an MP3, which would store thousands of tunes, would be the ticket to fit in. Kids are willing to do all sorts of things just to fit in. Especially kids that are different. Differences should be celebrated and not judged. It is important to have businesses that target niche markets to celebrate differences and encourage kids to love who they are no matter what.

Hannah’s Shoebox celebrates differences every day by being the only store that targets tweens. Hannah’s Shoebox offers shoes to young girls that wear bigger shoe sizes. Imagine having a large shoe size and having to walk the hallways of middle school with boy shoes or older women shoes. That would just make young girls feel uncomfortable and insecure but Hannah’s Shoebox can put that to an end and help girls understand big feet are also beautiful.