Prom Costs Too High? Here’s a Creative Option

We love this story about 17-year-old Missouri fashionista Maura Pozek, who made her own painted prom dress out of cardboard and paper bags. With families spending more than $1,000 to send their kids to prom this year (!), we think Maura’s idea is not only creative — but smart.

Pozek told NPR the dress took “lots of hot glue and some late-night last-minute alterations” — and she packed along some duct tape (and an extra dress) just in case her fashion-forward fantasy fell apart. But, she had to do something to live up to last year’s dress, which the teen made out of 4,000 pop tabs.

In a recent USA Today article, Kit Yarrow, co-author of Gen BuY, a book about youth buying patterns, says the need for attention is driving skyrocketing prom costs. “The bar is higher for what it takes to get attention, and therefore, (teens) really need to have something exclusive, original, unique to them in order to get attention to from other people,” she told the paper.

Personally, we like Pozek’s idea for stealing the spotlight a whole lot more.

What do you think about the high cost of prom? Is it worth it to break the bank?