We all know the classic school girl uniform. Avril Levigne pulled it off in the early 2000s by adding a grunge aspect, and Britney Spears added a more mature look to it in her …Baby One More Time music video. There were even tv shows that took the classic school uniform and added their own style to it like Gossip Girl and Gilmore Girls. You could find this school uniform look everywhere during the early 2000s, however, it’s started to come back.

One of the main reasons for the revival of this academia style is because of internet influencer Emma Chamberlain. Back in July, the Youtuber posted a picture of her on Instagram wearing a white tennis skirt, a collared shirt underneath a crewneck, and Oxford Doc Martens. Ever since then, girls everywhere have been recreating her look and adding their own twist to it. Many teenagers agree that Emma Chamberlain is one of the most influential people in fashion right now and anything she wears automatically becomes trendy and cool. People have even joked that if she wore yoga pants and Uggs, those would automatically become trendy again.

A cool thing about this style is it’s so versatile and there has even become sub categories of it. The major one is “dark accademia,” which takes the school girl uniform and makes it a lot more grunge, like Avril Levigne was doing. Girls have been taking black tights and ripping them, adding chains to plaid skirts, and pairing them with platform shoes. A lot of girls still stick to the more basic style with oversized sweaters or sweatshirts too, though.

The funny thing about bringing back this style is, if you were to ask any high school student who dresses like this their opinion on school uniforms they would probably be completely against them. So, why are teenagers willingly wearing these “school uniform” types of clothes, but are refusing the idea of school uniforms? The first thing is probably stubbornness, when teenagers get told to do something or wear something they, usually, automatically don’t want to do it. Another aspect is, when kids are forced to wear school uniforms it gives them no sense of individuality. Everyone in the school looks the exact same and strict rules are usually put on what you can and can’t wear with your uniform. In some schools, you can’t even wear socks or hair clips/headbands if they aren’t a part of your uniform. A regular school uniform just has nothing bold or different about it. 

The thing about the academia style is you can add whatever you want to it. You can choose to wear bold or unique pieces with it to give the style your own sense of individuality and creativity while still keeping the basic aspects of it. This is why teenagers would probably rather choose to dress like this rather than being forced to. 

Academia style is just versatile and there has even become sub categories of it. The major one is “dark accademia,” which takes the school girl uniform and makes it a lot more grunge, like Avril Levigne was doing. Girls have been taking black tights and ripping them, adding chains to plaid skirts, and pairing them with platform shoes. A lot of girls still stick to the more basic “Emma Chamberlain” style with oversized sweaters or sweatshirts too.

This seems to be the prime fashion trend taking over teenage style currently, so what will be next? Early 2000s or “Y2K” fashion seems to be making a major comeback this year, so maybe next we’ll all be wearing Juicy Couture sweatsuits again. With the constant change in the fashion industry and trending styles, you never know. However, for now, I  guess we’ll just stick with pleated skirts.