Why This New Body-Positive Clothing Line for Teens Is So Important

If we could time travel back to an earlier point in our lives, the one phase most of us would definitely skip is our tween and early teenage years. Everything is tricky and awkward, and finding clothes that fit you — literally and figuratively — can be hard. But a new collection from JCPenney called Obsess aims to make that part of tween life a little easier.

The collection is inspired by Olympic gold medalist Laurie Hernandez, who was drawn to the brand’s message of body positivity and how comfortable the clothes were.

“Material plays a big part,” she told SheKnows. “I love comfortable clothes. There’s a jean jacket that I love that’s super-stretchy. A lot of the clothes are stretchy as well.”

The capsule collection — which features on-trend tops, rompers, dresses and jeans — comes in sizes 7 to 20 to ensure it fits a wide range of bodies. Hernandez also helped design the clothes by picking out colors, patterns and styles she thinks would appeal to tweens and early teens.

“They’re looking at body image at such a young age and the message I want to get across is ‘you yourself are beautiful — there’s no one else out there like you,’” she says.  

Here’s a look at some of the pieces in the new collection, which is available now.