Little Girls

Your New Prompt is:

I was perusing my latest L.L Bean catalog:

(Fall Outerware 2016: “Experience Weightlessess.”)

and zeroed in on the captions.

Someone writes brilliant ads, yet I wonder how many people notice them.

Sure, “Waterproof and Wrinkle-Free” is how-hum, and “More Versatility. More Value.” doesn’t ring my bell, but “One Step Ahead of Winter,” is really good for a page about shoes.

In the coat department, one can find: “Tried, True and Toasty,” which I think tops “Underwear that Overachieves.” LOL



Your task it to write a poem or story about a person who strives to be original for the ads in the clothing company catalog. Please give us a couple of samples of his/her work.

Questions that might come up in your piece:

~~~~Do others appreciate his efforts?

~~~~Does her family refuse to call her a writer?

~~~~What are his/her frustrations/successes?

Little Girls

     Richard sat behind a desk tapping away on his desktop computer. On the screen, the words ‘little girls clothing’ appeared in the Bing search box. A second later a list of possible sites appeared. Richard selection one. On the screen now was a website site called ‘Little Girls.’ It looked like a clothing store.

     The screen was filled with pictures of young girls in different dresses. Richard scrolled down those rows of dresses until he clicked on one of them. It appeared on the screen full-screen a few seconds later. He got up and walked over to a rack of about twenty different little dresses. Richard searched through them then picked one. It was an exact duplicate of the ones on the computer screen.

     “What am I doing here? How am I supposed to write ads for preteen girl’s dresses? I don’t have any children, especially preteen girls. They sent me samples of all the dresses they expect me to write an ad for, and they expect me to have a different one for each dress within a week.”

     Just then Elizabeth walked in. “How is it going, Richard?”

     “Great so far Elizabeth. I haven’t come up with anything yet.”

     “You will. If anyone can do it, you can. You’re a great writer.”

     “I’m very good at writing short stories, movie and television scripts, and novels. I have never tried this kind of writing before.”

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     “Maybe I need to do something else for a little while and think about the dresses,” Richard said to himself as he entered the computer room with some food and something to drink. He took a drink as he sat down and place his food then his drink down next to his computer.

     Richard scrolled up the navigational section of that website until he came to the hyperlink labeled ‘Bras and Panties.’ He clicked on that hyperlink. A few seconds later rows and columns appeared. The different bras appeared first. As he scrolled down he came to the panties.

     “I’m supposed to come up with ads for these too. How am I going to do that?”

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     “How old are you little girl?” Richard asked a young girl who looked to be about ten or eleven. She screamed and ran away shouting: “Stranger danger, child molester, pedophile, and pervert.”

     “I’m not any of those things,” Richard shouted back as he walked toward three girls. They were around the same age as the still screaming and shouting girl.

     The three girls were staring at a male that appeared to be in his late thirties to early forties. Everyone on the playground was. Including several other adults near the entrance to that school that said ‘Riverbed Elementary’ above the entrance.

     “Where did you get that dress?” Richard stood in front of the young girl in the middle of the three. “Was it from the ‘Little Girls’ catalog?”

     Just then the three adults stepped up to Richard. The two females and a male had their arms crossed across their chest and an angry look on their faces. Not too far behind them were four other adults. One couple had suits and ties. The other couple was cops.

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     Richard paces around the computer room with a dress in his hand. He had it sticking out in front of him about little girl height. “Maybe I’m not an ad writer after all or maybe it’s just this type of ad I can’t do. If it was for something I know something about maybe I could do it.”

     “How are things going? Have you come up with anything yet?” Elizabeth asked as she entered that room.

     “Nothing. Not one thing. I don’t think I’m going to get this job, little sister.”

     “Maybe that’s how they wanted you to react. After all, you did practically beg them for a chance to get it. They may have given you so much in so short of time knowing you wouldn’t be able to do it.”

     “I had to try something. My writing on Writing.com wasn’t making me any money, and I haven’t had a real job in over a year.” Richard sat down at his computer and just started staring at it. “Since this was a small town company I was sure I could do this job. Maybe I was wrong about that.”

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     A conference table sat in the center of a very long oblong room. Richard sat at one end of that table and an executive looking female sat at the other end. On both sides of it, ten more individuals sat.

     Richard got up and turned off the lights. He bent over and tapped a button on the computer on the table in front of him. An image of a young girl in a dress appeared on the large screen behind the executive female. She turned toward it. So did everyone else in that room.

     Under the girl, the caption read, ‘Preteen girls love this dress. They love the different colors and patterns. Everywhere you go you see them in them. Preteens love to dance in them. These dresses are perfect for school dances and first dates. The girls love them and the parents love the price.’

     “The other nineteen ads say pretty much the same thing. I just changed them a little bit to make them different.” Richard hit another button on his computer.

     An image appeared on the screen showing bras and panties. The bras started with training bras and went up. They were in several different colors. Under the bras were the panties and they were in different colors too.

     Under the bras and panties, the caption read, ‘It doesn’t matter if it’s bras or panties preteen girls like color and designs. Their parents like them to be white, but the preteens don’t. They love the different colors and designs to choose from and the parents love the prices.’

     Richard turned on the lights and sat back down. “Do I get the job?”

Word Count = 997