Protest, Podcast, Discrimination. These are the events the main character Molly Frost in Dress Coded by Carrie Firestone faces during her middle school year at the Fisher Middle school. The book begins when Molly comes across an unfair dress code at her school because their school thinks it’s a distraction when their skin, shoulder, or belly button is showing. Molly can’t find shorts longer than her fingertips, her friend Liza got dress-coded even though Liza and Molly were wearing the same outfit. Jessica got dress coded and had to miss class and her teacher gave her an F on her math quiz. The vice principal always has a reason to dress code them even if it’s the smallest things. That’s why they gave her the name of fingertips. Molly is fed up and has had enough of this dress code and seeing her friends getting dress coded at least once a day. Molly decides to start a podcast with her friends talking about how unfair the dress code is and their experiences with the dress code. It’s been getting listened to by lots of people, but that wasn’t enough for them to get the attention of the school board to change the rules so Molly starts to take things into her own hands. She decides to make posters with the help of her friends and hangs them up on the school walls, but gets caught while doing so and gets detention. The poster may have not worked out but Molly Frost is still determined to change the dress code because why would their skin showing be more important than her education? Now she is figuring out new ways she will approach the dress code. Will Molly be able to change the dress code? How will she change the dress code? Will the podcast get noticed by the school board? To find out, read Dress Coded by Carrie Firestone. 

One scene that was incredibly impactful in Dress Coded by Carrie Firestone was when Molly was recording a podcast with her friend Mary Kate. During this scene Molly was saying how they could now go to school comfortably without getting dress coded or someone saying you were being distracting with a small piece of skin showing. Molly states, “…you can go to school and sit in class without somebody accusing you of being distracted by a shoulder or a collar bone or leg.” (p. 301). I connected to this quote because it made me realize that school dress codes could be really strict and unfair and I should appreciate our school because we don’t have to face all the challenges Molly has had with her school. Having a dress code at schools could help so the teachers don’t need to worry about what their students are wearing and if it’s distracting. However, if we did have a strict dress code, what we wear could become more important than our education. Also, we should be able to wear what we are comfortable in and what helps us to show our personalities.