With prom quickly approaching, junior and senior girls, as well as a few underclassmen, have been doing all that they can in preparation for the night. This preparation can often be influenced by socialized beauty standards, such as the desire to lose weight and look tan. It’s not uncommon to overhear girls claim they cannot eat until after prom, or that they’re on a new diet so they don’t “look fat” in their dress.

“I definitely find myself watching what I’m eating and how much I exercise as prom gets closer,” Senior Katie O’Connor explains, however she clarifies that she does not let herself get to the extreme of starvation, she just wants to make sure she will fit into her dress.

Senior Lexi Colella has simply added a more restricted diet alongside her lacrosse work out, “I bought a lot of healthy food and I try to eat smaller portions than I usually would, making sure every meal is within reason of my diet.”

Junior Alana Pecchioli was also concerned about the fit of her dress, “I made sure it wouldn’t make me look fat and I had to think about the color of the dress and whether or not it would make me look super pale,”

Getting a spray tan, or going tanning can help students to avoid this “super pale” feeling, however most of the time a sudden cheeto blasted look appears a few days before the prom. To make a casual transition to the tanned look, senior Morgan Hawk has changed her daily habits to include tanning every day so she will not have tan lines for prom. Morgan remarks that when choosing her dress, she was concerned about how it would look on her body.

These girls are aware of the risks of tanning, however they feel more confident when tan. “I like the way I look ten times better when I am tan,” Lexi Colella remarks. Hawk also agrees about the confidence tanning gives, she explains that she goes because, “Being tan makes me feel really good about myself, and it boosts my confidence. It makes a difference on how I feel on a day to day basis.”

Prom was once a time when girls would arrive with guys on their arm, and that was the only way to really show up. However, as women become more empowered with their own confidence the idea of needing to have a date has become something of the past.

A revolutionary trend is that more girls are less interested in having dates and more excited to experience this night with friends. Senior Jillian Kemble has a date, however she explains that she, “definitely didn’t stress about it. I was fortunate enough to have a friend ask me because I know we’ll have fun. But I think people shouldn’t get caught up in finding a date because then they lose the fun in it, and prom is supposed to be all about fun.”

Senior Katie O’Connor has a similar opinion, “[finding a date was] not important at all, a lot of girls I know are stressed about it so I made sure to let them know that prom is so much more than a date and sometimes a date is more stress than going solo.”