The online shops that include thousands of options, along with quantity over quality are known as fast fashion. It’s something that’s taking over the online fashion industry because prices are so low with styles that are in.  One could find anything they wanted after browsing for a few minutes through the variety of tabs and style choices that these types of brands offer.  

Shein, Princess Polly, Zara, Top Shop, Forever 21, Fashion Nova and H&M are some of the most popular fast fashion brands out there. These brand mass produce products that pollute the planet.  Fashion is now the second most polluting industry in the world. This is all due to fast fashion. Factories working through the night. This is without mentioning the intense amount of child labor.  

Child labor has been something that has been happening for hundreds of years, starting even before machinery was made. Even with our technological advancements, more than 170 million children are in child labor as of now (worldvision.org). They are experiencing either low wages, unsafe working conditions, or the child is just too young to be doing what they are doing on the daily. The high demand of products in these factories puts so much pressure on these young kids at such a young age and officials are scared for their wellbeing.  

The saying “fast fashion” really lives up to its name. Since these companies are working so “fast”, this means cheap labor, which leads to cheap pay. It’s not very popular in America, more so towards the Eastern hemisphere. Places like India, Pakistan, China, Egypt, Thailand, Bangladesh and so on demonstrate the practice heavily, where populations are high and there’s always enough children to be working.  The system is a cruel one, endangering the youth in poorer countries across the world — and it needs to be brought to light.