The girl walks down the spiral staircase and all eyes zero-in on her. She looks flawless: hair perfectly styled, makeup impeccably applied and dress effortlessly worn. Pictures are taken, compliments exchanged, and then she’s off with her date to the dance. Prom. It’s the classic scene in movies and music videos when dealing with high school. And the movies and music videos made it all look so easy, but I guess that’s because they don’t ever show the “before” moments;  if I’ve learned anything about dances and Prom, it’s that this beautiful scene with the stairs does NOT come easily.

Even with Prom three months away, the dress hunt is on. Senior girls are already going to ton of stores or scouring the internet, looking at tons of websites, and hundreds of dresses all to find the one that can accurately reflect how they want to feel that night. And this is not a simple task, but one with a range of possibilities that have to be narrowed down: what type of neckline is best, should it be strapless or backless, what color will make me look less pale, should it be laced, sequined or neither etc. It’s a process that is so ridiculous that it requires a ridiculously long amount of time to complete.

But wait.

Because now girls can’t just find a dress that they feel comfortable and beautiful in, they also have to verify that this dress hasn’t already been claimed. A Facebook page was recently created specifically for this purpose—Liberty girls can post the dress they intend to wear to Prom so other girls can avoid wearing a similar dress. While this seems quite ingenious, since after all, what girl wants to be overshadowed by another wearing the same dress, it also makes dress shopping more difficult.

Each day, as other girls find their dresses, other girls’ options of dresses are limited. And so on top of an already stressful process of picking a dress, there is the added stress of stepping on another girl’s toes if you pick a dress too similar to hers. Whereas before if two girls’ dresses matched it was an unfortunate accident, now there is accountability and whoever bought the dress second is surely to be blamed. So while I understand this page helps in preserving uniqueness, it also may inhibit a girl from selecting a dress they love. And this, to me, is a sad consequence, as every girl deserves the dress of their choice, one that makes them feel confident.

And so, while I wish I could offer a solution to this mayhem besides going with your gut and picking whichever dress you want, I suppose we can all just hope that this ordeal will be worth it when we have our own “stairs moment.”