What we wear can say a lot about us. People base much of their first impressions on what we wear. They (think they) can easily categorise us as hipsters, gamers, athletes, professionals, hippies, gay, straight, religious, promiscuous… the list could keep going.

But clothing doesn’t define who we are. And not everyone has the choice about what they get to wear everyday.

During December, I am participating in a challenge called “Dressember.” Participants wear dresses for the 31 days in December, with the goal of raising awareness of and funds to fight human trafficking. This is my second year participating, and I decided to wear the same dress for the whole month, similar to Dressember’s founder.

I picked the “Dressember Dress”, which was ethically made by survivors of human trafficking to wear during December.

I did allowed myself one “cheat day” a week to wear a different dress (I got a lot of use out of my ugly Christmas sweater dress).

I chose to wear the same dress essentially every day as a reminder that not everyone has the same freedom I do to do something as simple as picking out what to wear that day.

And it has definitely been a humbling experience. It showed me how much value I place on what I wear. Who cares if I wear the same thing more than once a week? Does it matter? We often think it does, but no one usually cares (or notices). 

To learn more about Dressember, visit my campaign page.