A group of fifteen-year-old girls gathered in Mexico City this past weekend to celebrate life and love and lackluster demonstrations of gross materialism. Just kidding! A mass quinces sounds super fun:

Dressed in colorful gowns and with hair coiffed like movie stars, the girls danced, shrieked and embraced on a stage in the capital’s main plaza.

Most of the girls come from poor families and typically would be left wanting in a ritual that illustrates the gap between Mexico’s haves and have-nots.

In the wealthiest families, the quinceañera celebrations can run into the tens of thousands of dollars and often include live bands, limousine rides and even trips to the U.S.

Don’t forget the bubbles machines, mimes and the silent, seething envy of all your friends.

But in a celebration organized by Mexico City officials and funded by private donors, these girls got a party second to none.

Clothing stores donated dresses. Beauty school students volunteered to do makeup and hair. The girls had a fancy lunch and then cruised the boulevards in a double-decker bus, winding up in a photo shoot at the city’s iconic “Angel of Independence” statue.

Scholarships are overrated. But, lest you need reminding that God really, really hates the poors:

Few things come easy for these girls, and even this day was no exception.

As they rode in the open-air bus during the afternoon, the skies opened and rain poured. They took cover as best they could.

We never had a quinces and we’ve never had the opportunity to wear a tiara, although we’ve tried to craft one out of Hershey Kisses wrappers and pipe cleaners. As such, we cannot wait to have a fantasy wedding beyond our means because it’s what’s expected of us thanks to a society that places a great emphasis on our being a beautiful, pipe-cleaner-wearing object to be looked at and applauded for being attractive and concerned with material things like dresses and make-up and movie star hair!

Also, we like cake. A lot.

Mexico City’s mass quinceañera makes girls into princesses [Chron]