Principally, I bear in mind the fluffy pens. After I was in elementary and center college, nothing may very well be cooler than a fluffy pen, at the least till it bought lined in backpack grime and began to appear to be an exceptionally long-tailed subway rat. And no place had fluffy pens in abundance like Claire’s, a sequence that bought equipment and different trinkets and, on the time, appeared to exist in each purchasing middle in America. Mine had a complete wall of fluffy pens, in each coloration, often for some form of absurd deal that allowed even a baby to really feel the intoxicating rush of acquisition. This was what Claire’s was for. It was a temple to girlhood, a spot the place all the pieces was frivolous and the place tooth-fairy cash may make desires come true.
However Claire’s is in hassle. Earlier this month, the corporate filed for chapter safety, for the second time in a decade, and commenced liquidating. At present, it introduced that it might be promoting nearly all of its North American enterprise to the private-equity agency Ames Watson, for $104 million, with the intention of holding a few of its shops open. Claire’s has been saved, at the least within the quick time period, however Ames Watson has its work lower out for it. Claire’s is a mall retailer, and malls are dying. Inflation, greater rates of interest, and rising labor prices have additional squeezed income—true for mainly each firm, however when your major prospects don’t have jobs, they don’t react properly to elevating costs. Just lately, President Donald Trump’s tariffs have difficult Claire’s enterprise mannequin, which is closely reliant on imports: From November 2024 to April 2025, 56 % of its stock got here from China. The corporate is about half a billion {dollars} in debt.
Claire’s began as a wig store within the Sixties earlier than merging with an equipment retailer in 1973, after which moving into the ear-piercing enterprise and staking its declare on preteen ladies. It specialised in cheaply made, kaleidoscopically cheesy junk, destined to dye your pores and skin inexperienced after which find yourself in a landfill. It was dangerous, within the aesthetic sense and the environmental sense. However Claire’s was particular to me, as a result of it was for me. It wasn’t the checkout aisle at a retailer for older girls or the costume nook of a children’ retailer. It wasn’t for impressing boys; it was for impressing ladies. It felt like a clubhouse. I can nonetheless bear in mind the way it smelled, like chemical substances and vanilla cookies. I bear in mind the purple partitions, lined floor-to-ceiling in all of the devices of tweenage self-expression: attraction bracelets, toe rings, impractically small purses, hair clips made to appear to be gummy bears or butterflies. I bear in mind how simple it was to purchase a pair of clear-lensed glasses or a flimsy flower crown and take a look at on a brand new id, how Claire’s made determining who you had been and what you preferred really feel enjoyable and low-stakes.
I bear in mind getting my ears pierced there, clearly, by somebody who couldn’t have been a lot older than I used to be, one in all my arms clutching my mom’s and the opposite clutching my finest buddy’s. Claire’s appeared to exist for exactly that point in a single’s life: sufficiently old to get your ears pierced, younger sufficient to be scared; sufficiently old to desire a purse, younger sufficient to not have a lot to fill it with; sufficiently old to have the allowance cash to purchase a scrunchie, younger sufficient to suppose it may change you. That second is sacred, and I do know now that it ends shortly. By the point I bought my nostril pierced, just a few years later, I didn’t even think about going to Claire’s. I wished to go to the native tattoo place as an alternative.
20 years later, retail has modified. So, I believe, has childhood. After I was purchasing at Claire’s, my wishes had been largely assembled within the self-contained ecosystem of King Center College. Typically a buddy’s older sister would give me recommendation, which I handled with biblical reverence, however for probably the most half, the folks telling me what to love had been ladies my age, whom I knew in actual life. This wasn’t completely logical—looking back, I most likely mustn’t have allowed Gemma S. and An-Hae C. absolute energy over my moods, pursuits, tastes, and values—however it was at the least easy. I used to be a child who shopped like a child, as a result of the folks I used to be imitating had been children too.
At present’s younger persons are studying what’s cool on the context-collapsed, algorithmically pushed social internet, a lot of the time from skilled influencers who’re older than them. Tweens nonetheless exist as a market class and a chronological distinction, however in follow, they act so much like teenagers and even 20-somethings. To the diploma that they’re even purchasing in particular person in any respect, it’s usually at grown-up locations similar to Sephora, the place they will obsess over which costly lotions so as to add to their elaborate anti-aging skin-care routines, and Brandy Melville, which shares garments that I, an grownup, can be completely snug carrying: high-necked cardigans, striped tops in tasteful neutrals. Possibly they need to go to Claire’s whereas they nonetheless can, although, and get their arms on a fluffy pen.
