Metro

‘Bitch Don’t Steal My Dress’: Teen girls using social media to prevent classmates from wearing same prom gown

Staten Island Tech student Anna Lin is using social media to help her pick the perfect prom dress.

Staten Island Tech student Anna Lin is using social media to help her pick the perfect prom dress. (Steve White)

WHEW! Prom-dress disasters are being averted on Facebook. (
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It’s every teenage girl’s nightmare — showing up to prom in the same gown as another — but now many are taking to social media to avert such a fashion disaster.

This prom season, girls are laying claim to their gowns of choice by posting photos of the outfits — sometimes right from the store dressing room — on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Tumblr.

Parents may be alarmed at the titles of some of the online prom-dress groups. Names like “Bitch Don’t Steal My Dress” and “Steal My Prom Dress and I’ll Knock You The F–k Out” are common.

A Brooklyn Tech prom page on Facebook greets users with, “Welcome to the page where you tell people you’ll physically hurt them over formal wear.”

But the 466 users who have posted pictures since December are just kidding about ballroom bloodshed.

“I don’t see seriously mean comments, just compliments and likes,” said Sara Zhong, a senior at the school.

But she said she was quick to call dibs on her own royal-blue number — posting a self-portrait of her wearing it in a fitting room “pretty much the minute I decided.”

Smartphones are also being used to solicit instant fashion feedback

Girls at Bronx Preparatory Charter School, New Dorp HS on Staten Island, and Bayonne HS in New Jersey show off their prom-dress picks on Twitter and Instagram and wait for their followers to give thumbs-up or -down.

Victoria Molinari, who attends Staten Island’s CSI High School for International Studies, is taking her phone into the dressing room and posting “selfies” as she tries gowns on, asking for opinions from both her school friends and the followers of her Tumblr blog.

“I talk to them constantly,” she said. “I think I’ll get more honest opinions from strangers than from people I know in real life.”

Teens say they enjoy the ballgown previews.

“There’s really no competition on who has the prettiest dress,” said Lulin Peng, a Stuyvesant HS senior. “The only thing you can think of is how beautiful every girl will look in their dresses.”

Anna Lin, of Staten Island Tech, said: “I got a lot of likes, and it felt really good. It gets us much more excited and hyper for prom.”

Additional reporting by Candice M. Giove