Why Lolitas are Tougher than your Average Jane

Original picture from gothic.stir.ac.uk

"Thus, the maiden fights. After all, to live is to fight, and to become beautiful is to become stronger." 

-Arika Takarano of Ali Project, "Gothic and Lolita Bible", Winter 2009 

This post is gonna be a small tribute to how we Lolitas fight to be fabulous and how difficult it can be to be us. We have so many crazy things that we go through, or risk going through, that "ordinary" people will probably never understand why we stick around with this fashion!

I have compiled a list of annoying Lolita problems and pet-peeves that we will all just have to deal with if we want to stay Lolitas.
These are the reasons Lolitas are tougher than the average girl!

Ill-fitting Clothes and Uncomfortable Shoes
Where ordinary people can just walk into a store and try on most pieces of clothing before they buy them, Lolitas have to send off their measurements to some company in far-away Asia and trust that they can figure it out. The only other alternative is to rely on the (not always accurate) measurements provided by the seller, and sometimes when a Lolita finally receives her item (after a long, long period of anxious waiting), well, the Lolita may just discover that that particular shade of pink is not her color at all, that the skirt is too short, or that she should never, ever consider buying something with a sweetheart neckline again. The same thing goes for shoes. Especially Bodyline has horribly inaccurate sizing at times, and lets face it, Lolita shoes were just not made for long Shopping Meet-ups with hours of walking. 
But as they say, if you wanna be beautiful, you'll have to suffer!

Obnoxious Cameras

When Lolitas are out and about, they often have to deal with paparazzis. Not actual professional ones, but curious people who just won't take "no" or an icy glance for an answer. You can try to escape, you can try to hide, but some people are creepily persistent and are not gonna give up until they get that perfect snapshot of the strange girl in the pink wig so that they can giggle with their friends about it later, or whatever else people use those pictures for. 
Some people may find the hunt to be very flattering, but to me, that is definetely up for discussion.

Getting Stuck and Knocking Everything Over
Petticoats that get stuck in car doors, ribbon bows getting stuck on doorhandles (this happens to me all the time in a particular skirt of mine), trying to leave a fancy restaurant but knocking over a candle and setting the tablecloth on fire, or knocking over a cup of hot cocoa and staining your friends new skirt. 
All of the above are very real risks to even the least clumsy of Lolitas!


Stains, and Prints that bleed
The frustration when someone (or your unfortunate self) spills something on your Lolita can be enormous, especially if your JSK has a print that is well-known to bleed if someone as much as dares to whispers the word "water".

Fees, Customs and Inflated Prices
There you see it. Your dream dress, up for grabs on Mbok! It is your lucky day! Well, or so you thought, until you saw the price. Resale values can sky rocket high above the original sales price, but if you want the dress, you'll just have to suck it up, knowing that shipping costs, shopping-service fees and customs are only going to add to the price in the end. 
Just don't think about how much cute stuff you could have bought on Taobao instead. It will make your wallet cry.

And these are just to name a few! 
 Being a Lolita can be delightfully sweet and horribly difficult, but we are tough and we stick around because we love our fashion enough to not worry so much about the little things above. 
But wow, can they be tiring when they happen!

What hardships do you hate to face, but deal with anyway, as a Lolita?