I have worked at Club Libby Lu for the past 2+ years. I know already some of you are sickened by me. I respect everyones opinions. But please, some libby lu's are not that bad.
I've been to some where they lather on the makeup, and yes, we used to have rather risque outfits, but we have progressed. I don't do makeup heavily and the store isn't about "turning them into whores."
We focus on "unlocking their inner princess." That sounds like the dumbest thing in the world to you, but to a 4 year old girl, having a fairy wish is amazing. Imagine being a kid again. It is all fantasy, but this is kids we're talking about.

I expect you all to hate me cause I "craft little whores" but oh well, I love my job and will stay with the company till it goes under.

"Club Libby Lu is the brainchild of veteran retailer Mary Drolet. A former Montgomery Ward & Co. and Claire's Stores, Inc. executive, she recognized the lack of retail competition and the growing numbers in the tween market."

Did I just see Montgomery Ward? After this is over, CLL might as well had been the love child of Montgomery Ward and Claire's. (It was girly, it closed, and it was somehow tied to a department store.)

And the non-Marketingish side of their website explains the Libby Du: "During a 'Libby Du™,' girls dress up as pretend characters such as a rock star or princess."

Their last news release was in March of last year.

(Their site still has Employment and Franchising sections.)

That and there's this amazing thing that happens in shops. If you put something in a shop /someone/ will buy it! No, really. Even utter crap, someone will buy it. My six year old and I were swimming in the sea off Wales in what we British like to refer to as "summer". It wasn't that warm, but she was still going strong after half an hour or so - but she couldn't understand why all the other kids were wearing wet-suits. My theory is that because they're in the shops people think that they have to buy them - they don't consider the alternative - leaving them on the shelves.

I thought you girls thought it was a limo for ladies on their night out.

But the stripper thing is perfectly reasonable.

So, even though I've no reason to shop at that store in particular, I'm actually kind of sad to see them go. They weren't doing anything risque or inappropriate, and it was all in all a really nice experience.

@docrice: @docrice: Just this weekend I watched that "Painted Babies" update documentary focusing on those toddler pageant queens - but the two upon which the story focused weren't Texans (which surprised me).

@h3llc4t needs to stop bawling: Wow, what a change. I'll be honest, I would probably have shopped there if they let me make my own makeup. That is the sort of thing that would have appealed to me.

@AlexDitto: I am starting my own fantasy. When I grow up I want to be a fire truck. This would involve no glitter but lots of noise. I am ok with this.

@Dervish: that is a great episode and made me want to make a list of who has the cutest purse on the metro.

@Parapraxis: My husband and I went to Disney on our honeymoon and were shocked at that store. I had to go in but my husband refused because it was a little creepy. The only thing I can say in that stores defense is that next to it is a store that will give you a pirate (not a wench) makeover.

I am SO happy this place is going bye-bye. My six year old hounds me to no end everytime we go to the mall to go there. I go in, make a circle and walk out. She whines why I never buy anything. "Gee, let me see... $35 for you to wear some cheap ass Chinese makeup crap on your face where you're going to break out from it, have nail polish slapped all over your fingers which I think Michael J. Fox could do a better job and get your hair tangled into a rat's nest? No way. We can go to the REAL salon and get fake nails for that. But you're not doing that until you're at least in high school." Ours has only been in our mall for a year. Oh well. The space will be taken over by more Whore-stores...

@resipsapasta: Considering the coming economic meltdown, for some parents it might be a good investment.

@Mkp-hearts-nyc: Just be glad "baby sister" doesn't have the same connotation as "baby daddy".

@CyrusOpeth: If we limited our comments to things we actually knew something about, Consumerist would be a very quiet place.

@Necoras:
Yeah, Texas... the toddler beauty pageant capital of the world, a great place to call home for stage parents trying to make their kids famous to ride their coattails to retirement...

But seriously, those places are disturbing. My aunt took my cousins to a couple of parties at the one in the Galleria and it creeped me out.

@Segador: Yes it does. yes it does.

@Parapraxis: I ate there once and could not for the LIFE of me remember the name of the place - but seeing you say it, it's all coming back to me. Thank you!! Yes their food is great!

And just so nobody accuses me of threadjacking.. I too loved the "...an unprofitable tween-girls "makeover" chain that apparently exists. " bit too. One look at that hideous logo and it's really no wonder they went under. Do little girls really like that stuff? My little sister must be some crazy exception to the rule.

This sort of crap frustrates me to no end. It is why the number of women in science is still falling dramatically. This is unacceptable pandering to the lowest common denominator. As if somehow magical fairy dust and getting a "Libby Du" is in any way beneficial to the girl in question. I mean... it's not reality, it's not fantasy, it's like some store-bought prepackaged overpriced sweetcake that is meant to be swallowed whole.

Bleh. I'm glad they're closing!

@Parapraxis: Um, we are guys. We thought it was a limo full of strippers.

Yeah the chain used to be pretty different. I remember being young enough (around 12 or so) to still be mildly interested when I first saw the store. The had customizable glitter stuff and more make-believe fairy type stuff, it was actually pretty cute. It caught my tom-boy attention, I walked out with a bag of fairy dust I made myself. As I grew older I saw more and more girls walking out wearing too much make-up and glitter...it was kinda sad. I wonder if it would have been more profitable had they stuck to more make-believe and glitter than makeover parties.

Well i don't see anything like whoring girls on the website, it looks fine to me. 40.00 per kit a little much but if you only had your kid and 2 friends that would be fine.
Again i have never seen a party but the web site looks fine to me and fun for the kids,
The people that are complaining here and say that this is whoring out the girls i have a question...
"Are you aloud to dance in you town...............?" if you don't get the comment its from Footloose, a town of closed minded people that wanted everyone to "follow the flock"
This doesn't look like a "Bratz" type of store to me.

@ViperBorg:

Pedobear's manager PedoPanda.

@CyrusOpeth:

You have to be kidding. These places were nothing more than a way to to make money, and turn young hcildren into vain little whores, so the entire vanity industry could keep on raking it in when they got older.

There's nothing like making your duaghter look like a cheap hooker with fake tattoos and ten pounds of makeup. Yea, that's a great influence for young girls. It's bad enough the entertainment industry already pushes vanity driven corporate pop and hip-hop music down their throats from a ripe young age.

Just like anywhere, it depends on the parents, teachers, or those in charge to set the standard. Don't blame the store.

@CyrusOpeth: Not just birthday parties. Apparently you can just walk in and get a "Libby Du" or whatever - for $25 they will tart up your little princess, just for fun.

Thank god the economy tanked enough before any of these stores made it to my area. heh

When I was a little girl, I think I wanted to be something between Jacques Cousteau and a professional soccer player. Even in my tender years, I would have really resented only being offered a measly handful of pre-approved fantasies. If you're young, and you can't find anything in the material culture that you feel represents you -- or any manifestations or role models of how you feel you are, you can sometimes be lead to feel as if you are very strange and wrong as a person for being different. These uber-visible peddlers of little girl dreams strike me as being pretty insidious in that way.

Ah well. I guess you can be whatever you want to nowadays -- as long as it's this, this, or this.

Hiring Ron Jeremy as the celebrity spokesperson is a must to save this company.

I don't know if pedophiles go to heaven, but if they do and this is it, at least they can shop for a sport jacket and buy an Orange Julius whilst there.

Oh well... at least the tweens will still have Limited Too, Claire's, and the Disney Store at Glenbrook. I wonder who will take over the space...

@Mkp-hearts-nyc: Pedobear approves.

The rest of us cry.

Some of my nieces from questionable parts of my family have gone there for birthday/slumber party events and I just can't understand it, no matter how hard I try.

Makeovers are great, sure. Little girls love them (as long as they weren't a ninja turtle loving tomboy such as myself). But back in my day, and I swear I'm not old enough to be using that phrase, mothers and older sisters made the girls in attendance all pretty and such.

I just see something very wrong in what seems to be intentionally raising high maintenance females.

Amen. I would NEVER bring my daughters or nieces into that store.

@EyeHeartPie: You do not have to buy the clothes - they are offered separately from the makeover or from the party package. And they are just tank tops and tee shirts, often adorned with sparkles, which by coincidence both little girls and show girls can often be found wearing, though in very different styles. Maybe the whorish clothes these girls you saw wearing were their own, brought from home? Regardless, the basic experience at Libby Lu is fun and innocent. So yes, you do need to experience it.

The Disney Shops make a TON of money, the wait list for reservations is gigantic. Say what you will, Disney sure knows how to separate money from parents- and they don't mind at all. American business at its best.

Though probably not without a day's notice.

@SpiderJerusalem: First of all, if you had read what I wrote or gone to a Libby Lu yourself, you would see it does not just offer full "parties." We walked into the store and did a little impromptu makeover. More importantly, I am not discounting other people's "experiences," I am discounting other people's *lack* of experiences. I think it is difficult to judge an activity you have never tried, as I stated in my original post. Many of the commenters said Libby Lu "looks" a certain way or they "heard" things, so it sounds like they have not actually been there to try the service themselves. If, after trying out Libby Lu, people still think it is too expensive and/or too hoochie, then I would be happy to agree to disagree on matters of how much constitutes "expensive" and how conservatively one would like to raise one's children.

Made me spit up in my mouth a little.

I like how you're discounting other people's experiences because they have a different policy for mother/daughter than for parties.

@suzapalooza: Playing dress-up in my house did not involve any makeup, wigs, glitter, or spending money, actually.

I am very surprised at the negative replies to this chain. I took my then 11 year-old cousin for a "mother/daughter" makeover (close enough) and it was just a fun, cute thing to do - they just do your hair and nails, put on a *tiny* amount of makeup, and make the little girl feel special. It was just a neat and extremely inexpensive (I think it was about $35 for the two of us) way to spend some time with my cousin and I don't see anything wrong with it. It sounds like the people with negative comments haven't actually gone through the process - it is not expensive, they are not trying to give the girls a real "makeover" (they use that word because it is in fashion magazines - in reality they aren't changing the girls, just playing dress up for an afternoon), there is nothing "Bratz" or "hoochie" or "Paris Hilton" about it. I am sorry to see this chain go as it was a unique experience that my cousin loved!

"and get a 'Club Libby Du.'"

Is that slang for getting a club up the side the head?

With all of the Hannah, et al, garbage at the Walmart, it's no wonder parents would shun spending the big bucks at CLL when they can get it cheap and have the same type of party at home. Hate to see people lose their jobs, though.

I hope they close them but I have a feeling that at least these 2 locations will remain open.

Will they have the fairy dust at their liquidation sales?

You must live near the Woodlands.. I've seen that Limo before.. Anywho, My daughter wanted to work there when she turned 16. Allwell..

Not long ago a client and I were outside his office and this bright pink limo drives by with "Girl Party Limo" or something down the side. We thought, "Hey, that looks great! Let's find out what they charge." So we go inside and the secretary hears us talking about it and says it's for preteen girls. Not what we thought.

Not what we thought indeed. We were sorely disappointed.

@deadandy: I thought you were going to say, the class of people who think that whoring their children is an appropriate birthday party activity.

At the party, girls arrive at the Club. They are all greeted by a fairy and make a wish on her fairy dust. Each girl then creates her own secret Club name. Then their Libby Dus™ comes true. After dressing up and playing games, they visit our Goodie Shop and make their own Goodie Bags. Singing and Dancing, all the girls celebrate the guest of honor.

I don't know that I could bring home a paycheck finding out what kind of marketin works on children. There seems to be a lot of lost dignity involved, on both ends.

Hmmm, how exactly do you "makeover" a child? "Sweetie, we're going to take yeeaars off that face...you'll have the glow of an 8 year old. And that waist? Dahling, that waist simply must be trimmed down to a svelte 12 inches. And lots of glitter, honey, lots of glitter. And my all means, you should smell like chocolate and cherries."

Seriously. Who the hell thought this crap up?

And yes, I know what this is. It doesn't make it less disgusting. And I'm saying this as someone who is fairly liberal. There's a reason the West Coast hasn't embraced the child beauty pageant scene.

Well, if the decision to close sparkles and shines with the committee, I gues there's nothing I can do about it.

@CyrusOpeth: Yes- My daugher came home from a "party" at Libby Lu several years ago. She came home wearing 14 pounds of makeup and jewelry with a brochure that advertised other "makeover" parties for little girls. It's pretty much exactly as they described in the post.

Thanks South Park.

Are you kidding me?

All I know is that all the marketing materials were pink and fluffy and had faux feathers and tiaras...but little girls wound up in my store with slicked back hair, asymmetrical spandex tops and tight dance pants with fake-microphone headsets.

The world is a better place w/o Libby Lu.

This falls into the "Child's Pirate Wench Costume" catagory for me.

I really can't comprehend that last paragraph.

That place looks like Barbie and Paris Hilton drew up architectural designs while crashing on 'shrooms.

The Napa Rose, on the other hand, is nothing short of magnificent. Definitely worth a visit if you're ever in the area.

The fact that such a place even existed makes me want to Libby Bu.

YAY! This should be on Jezebel as well. I don't like to see businesses fail, and I know employees are involved, but I praise the good taste of those who didn't bring their daughters to these places and have them remade as living Bratz dolls.