Invasion of the JoJo Bows

I’ve been asked to comment for the BBC this week about what I think of JoJo Bows and what my thoughts are about them being banned in a number of schools…

What are JoJo Bows?

If you haven’t seen them yet then they’ll definitely be coming to a school near you soon. Made popular by YouTube star JoJo Siwa, these massive, brightly-coloured (often diamante-adorned) branded bows retail for between £8-10 exclusively in the UK at Claire’s Accessories.

Previously the preserve of girls in dance groups, in gymnastic clubs and cheerleaders, JoJo Bows have hit the mainstream and have now started infiltrating schools.

JoJo Bows a No No at School

The hair accessory has hit headlines recently due to being banned at a number of schools for breaching uniform rules. Parents, who have forked out for the hair decoration, have been up in arms. I personally think that the signature larger variety (as in massive) look rather ridiculous, but aside from a wider debate about uniform, which I recently discussed for Yahoo!, there are a number of other issues.

For their part, Claire’s Accessories have gauged schools’ responses and have brought out a range of JoJo Bows in school colours, but obviously girls aren’t going to want to bother with those; they want the biggest, sparkliest variety on the market. The main issues with the bows, like with any craze, is they are a major source of distraction and can be a tool of oneupmanship.

At my daughter’s school they banned Pokemon cards as they were causing too many problems: dominating classroom chat, cards were going missing, unfair swaps, bragging etc etc. I can certainly see how the same might happen with JoJo Bows. Added to that there are the more expensive bona fide official JoJo Bows and the cheaper replicas; and of course they all know the difference, so again it’s something that can be really divisive: those that can afford the genuine ones and those that can’t.

Out of School

Despite the fact that they’re not my taste, I realise that kids like to express themselves and experiment with fashion. Through gritted teeth, I would let my girls have them outside of school, but not at school. I reckon teachers have enough to contend with without having to police hair accessories.