While mindlessly scrolling through Instagram, something catches your eye: an ad for a  bright, fresh, yellow crop top. To be honest, the shirt looks like any other you would find walking down the aisle of a teen apparel store. But here’s the catch: it wasn’t the shirt that caught your attention in the first place. It was the price: 4 dollars.

4 dollars? You think it’s too good to be true and well…

You’re right.

At this point on your path to snatch the ultimate deal, you go one of two ways. You either buy the shirt, proud for finding such a low price, or you think it’s a scam and keep scrolling. However, there is a third direction–the thorny, twisty road that explains why fast fashion is so cheap.

Fast fashion is commonly used to define cheap, trendy clothing that samples ideas from the catwalk or celebrity culture and turns them into garments in high street stores and websites at breakneck speed.

Recently, companies such as Romwe, Zara, and Shein have been booming, creating substantial shifts in the fashion industry.

Many use these websites because it’s convenient, but it is time to really start considering how this convenience is causing hardships for millions of others across the globe.

More people are buying fast fashion apparel every day, but what they don’t realize is that these businesses have countless cases of human rights violations.

Whether it be in Colombian mines, Bangladeshi factories, or Vietnamese textile mills, labor standards for garment producers are so low that less than 2% of the workers earn a living wage.  For example, according to Newsweek, Bangladeshi seamstresses get paid 39¢ an hour. These workers can’t even afford the cheap products they make.

Fast fashion supporters argue the industry will help the global economy as a whole by providing more jobs. Supporters claim that increasing job availability and boosting the economic state of all developing countries will make the world more equal when it comes to taking steps forward for mankind. This inclination couldn’t be more wrong.

Sure, this industry provides easy access to cute clothes, but at what cost? Studies show that even though fast fashion apparel is giving the clothing industry a boost right now, the unethical practices needed to sustain these businesses are simply not worth it. Some experts even say these companies use dangerous chemicals in their products.

The New York Times article “Fashion at a Very High Price” shows that companies such as Zara and Romwe use chemical lead in numerous bright apparel.

“Even at shallow levels, it has been linked to nervous system damage, cardiovascular problems, kidney failure, and many other health problems,” Dr. Lanphear, Professor of health sciences at Simon Fraser said.

So next time you scroll through Instagram, walk down that third path, the path of wonderment, and don’t be afraid to ask why.

Stop encouraging unethical practices whose detriments outway benefits. After all, at some point, you have to consider the facts.  Is ruining a woman’s livelihood and putting hazardous chemicals on your body honestly worth it?