Fast Fashion: A Lack of Compassion

Review and Poem by Aolani Achi, age 11.

When people start to think about the world and what’s good for it, they begin to learn what is really happening to our Planet Earth. People are more concerned with the food we consume, but they don’t really think about the clothes we wear and the impact it has on the environment.

Note: Due to graphic images in the True Cost documentary, parental discretion is advised.

Fast Fashion
A lack of compassion

Going to the mall
Doing a shopping haul
The clothes you buy
Might be pleasing to the eye
But Shadow factories conceal the truth
Child labor destroys the youth

Don’t you realize the price you pay?
Is harmful to others and causes dismay
You’ll probably sell it, or throw it away

A building in Bangladesh came crashing down
More than one thousand people buried in the ground
I cannot count the cost
Of all the people that were lost

Unsafe conditions
Harsh chemical emissions
Slaves of ambition

Plastic from polyester will not go away
It will remain in the landfill and never decay

The True Cost documentary makes you think
It will show you the environment on the brink

What do we have to say?
When the water is polluted and the fresh air is away
And the Earth is brown
No trees, no green, just garbage on the ground

Many kids in India are permanently ill
Due to toxins they can only sit still

The cotton that we wear
Are grown in pesticides, so beware

Things that might seem harmless to you and me
Causes so much damage to the sea

Fair Trade is like a tree
Its branches stretch out to those in need

I write things like this with a passion
And that’s how I know the lack of compassion
That exists in Fast Fashion

Aolani composed this striking poem after learning about the detriments of Fast Fashion in the live online class How to Recycle Old Clothing on Outschool with Carly