121.4 million dollars. That’s the estimated yearly revenue for Brandy Melville, a popular clothing company targeting teen girls. Over the last few years, many teen girls have been wearing their tops, pants, pajamas and accessories. However, as Brandy Melville gains popularity, more controversy around the clothing brand is coming into light. Their clothes are exclusive; they are only meant for thin girls, and they enforce this with their “one size fits all” marketing.

Brandy Melville was founded in Italy in the 1980s, and the first U.S. location opened in 2009 in California. Now, their main target audience are young girls who want clothes that fit the “clean girl aesthetic” and “coastal granddaughter aesthetic,” both of which are trends within the younger population. Brandy Melville offers various pieces of clothing, from tank tops to jewelry and beyond.

“I like how basic their clothes are,” freshman Drew Galizio said. “That’s [why] I have a lot of their staple pieces in my closet.”

The brand gained popularity through social media, accumulating over 3.1 million followers on Instagram alone. Their posts show slender, carefree girls with an aesthetic lifestyle, displaying the type of life many teenage girls are pressured to have. With social media serving as a huge marketing strategy to accumulate younger audiences, they reach teen girls by popping up on their “For You” pages and becoming the next big trend that teens want to hop on.

“I think it’s really popular [because] a lot of the clothes are pretty simple and cute and [can go] with a lot of outfits,” freshman Maddie Hartford said.

In today’s society, many different brands such as Madewell, Skims and Uniqlo are working to expand their size range to include people of all different body types. Brandy Melville has leaned in the opposite direction with their “one size fits all” sizing. For Brandy Melville, this one size caters more towards people who are extra small, small and a medium.

The whole point of the “one size fits all” tactic is to make this brand seem “exclusive” to teenage girls. They want extra small, small and medium girls to be the only ones included, while large, extra large and beyond are excluded.

“I think it’s really exclusive because some people can’t shop there,” Galizio said.

But why is the idea of “one size fits all” so impactful? This sizing is going against the body positivity movement that people are supporting all around the world. Currently, many teen girls struggle with body image and size. 53% of American girls are not happy with their current bodies, while 78% of girls over 17 are not happy with their bodies. With one size fits all, this sets the stage for the “ideal” body type, in other words extra small, small or medium. This reinforces the toxic culture of beauty standards in today’s society, and some teenage girls feel pressured to try to fit and conform into the size that is idolized in today’s culture. The documentary Brandy Hellville and The Cult of Fast Fashion shows social media posts that include customers talking about how they want to lose weight in order to fit into the clothes the brand offers.

13% of adolescents develop an eating disorder by age 25, and part of this is accredited to the beauty standards set out by today’s society and brands like Brandy Melville. Teenagers also develop low self esteem, anxiety, depression and social isolation because of how they feel about their bodies. This can be very detrimental to the mental health of young people who want to shop at Brandy Melville.

“I think it makes me feel worse when the clothes don’t fit because it’s one size,” Galizio said.

The average waist circumference of an American woman is 38.7 inches. A pair of jeans from Brandy Melville has a 28 inch waist. That is a more than 10 inch difference from the average American woman. How are average American women expected to fit into this brand when they make their clothing so much smaller?

“You can’t wear everything you want there, and it’s kind of exclusive,” Hartford said. “It shuts you off from being able to wear what you like, especially because there is only one option.”

Brandy Melville promotes toxic beauty standards that society is currently trying to shy away from with the body positivity movement. While there is much controversy surrounding this brand, they have done very little to fix the problem. Yet, people still shop there because of its popularity and exclusiveness, hoping to reach the unrealistic expectations that Brandy Melville promotes. The normalization of these standards are part of the reason why teenagers struggle with their mental health.