21 Signs You’re In An Unhealthy Relationship With Forever 21

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1. When you walk by the store, you immediately know when they’ve changed stuff around. You see the mannequins out of the corner of your eye and you’re like “oh, shit, crop tops” and make a bee line for the entrance.

2. On more than one occasion, you have bought an item of jewelry you like in doubles because you know it’s a matter of weeks (days?) before it either stains your skin green or literally falls apart while you’re wearing it.

3. You have that one magical F21 item that has lasted the years, and when people ask where you got it, you’re like “Forever 21 a few years ago. I know, I know, I’m just as confused as you.”

4. Come summertime, your flowery sundress game is completely untouchable.

5. You have shopped in their online store, purchased about 60 dollars worth of clothes (aka like 10 things) and totally forgotten about it. Then you arrived home and saw that package, and it was the best day of your life.

6. All of your “experimental” clothes come from when you’re in the dressing room at Forever 21 and are unsure if you’re “the kind of person who can pull of the backless fluorescent maxi dress” but decide “fuck it, it’s 12 dollars, whatever.”

7. You have bought many a questionable makeup item while waiting in line to pay for your clothes.

8. You feel that you have on some level formed an emotional bond with the employees there, and therefore do your absolute best to not make a mess when you use the dressing room.

9. That being said, you have a “thirty second rule” when it comes to putting things back. If you can’t find where it goes on the first tour around the store, you’re just hanging it up next to a bunch of random cardigans and walking away.

10. When you hear a bunch of teenagers being rowdy in the dressing room next to you, your first thought is “Ugh, get these kids out of my store.”

11. You have quickly forgotten the era in which you were the rowdy teenager trying on sequined tube tops in the dressing room and taking pictures of each other with your flip phones.

12. Even though the store is, objectively, totally impossible to navigate, you always somehow manage to make all the stops necessary on any given shopping trip. You have somehow developed an innate knowledge for “how to get from the sandals to the maxi skirts with minimal effort.”

13. Whenever you’re shopping there, you say to yourself at least 10 times while picking up items “Whatever, it’s only a couple bucks, it’ll be fine,” and don’t realize that this adds up to 120 dollars until you get to the register.

14. No matter how many times you ask, you still have to clarify the return policy every time you make a purchase.

15. You have the F21 sale times down to a science, and know exactly when you can get that adorable, office-appropriate dress for precisely four dollars.

16. The art of “mixing F21 things with items that cost more than 20 dollars, so as to look chic and effortless” is one you know all too well.

17. If you have a boyfriend, he has learned to hate this store, and his hours spent waiting for you next to the bracelets, with a passion.

18. Occasionally you convince yourself that it’s a good idea to buy a blazer that costs 12 dollars, and are still somehow surprised when it starts rapidly unraveling on the first day you wear it out of the house.

19. You have bought more than one “single-use dress” that you intend to wear out to the club/dive bar/birthday party and totally destroy.

20. You respond “Forever 21” so often when people say “That’s really cute, where did you get it?” that you have considered just saying “thrift store” to class things up a little bit.

21. You may or may not have a tab open with the store website right now as we speak. Just browsing, you know, prepping for summer with that 5 dollar bikini top.

image – tsaiproject