Victorian Era: The Origins of Lolita Fashion

I wrote this research paper about the origins of lolita fashion for HA344 European Fashion: Ancient Origins to Modern Styles. I have always been interested in the subculture of lolita fashion but was never able to delve deep into its history. I also don’t take part in the culture myself, so being able to explore this interest of mine through a paper was very exciting. I remember being proud of this piece simply because I received a good grade for it. At the time, I didn’t know how else to self-evaluate my own written work.

I met with Rah-nee to get a fresh perspective of this paper. During our session, Rah-nee had asked me what made me feel proud of this piece. I couldn’t properly answer, so together we rediscovered aspects of the paper that I liked and parts that I could improve on. I realized that I was so focused on getting a good grade that I didn’t properly learn how to fully cite sources or clearly state my thesis since many of my previous teachers did not provide criticism for those specifics. Instead of revising this paper that I had already submitted, Rah-nee allowed me to explore how I could improve my professional writing for future projects. They also introduced me to different sources, such as FIT’s databases and Google Scholar, that I could use for future research projects and help provide in my own sessions.

Overall, by looking back on this paper in detail, I discovered that there is no “end” to a piece of writing. Even after a piece is submitted for an assignment, there is still so much to discover. And those discoveries are not limited to specifics that I need to improve on. I’ve also discovered parts of this paper that I felt proud of, instead of relying solely on a grade or someone else’s opinion to evaluate my own writing. I believe that my interest in the subject of lolita subculture was apparent throughout the piece, and that I was able to take full advantage of sources to provide context for my statements.