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My daughter is 5.5 and will only wear dresses, though she does wear pants under them almost every day (we're in New England, so she has little choice lol).

I don't know about your LO's school, but most of the girls in both my LO's preschool and now Kinder don't wear dresses; so I doubt that she is hearing messages about having to wear dresses to be pretty.

I wear dresses almost every day to work, so I've also wondered if LO picks up cues from me or wants to wear dresses because I do. I don't know....I don't have answers except to say that my LO is the same and has been for years and shows no signs of stopping!

My DD went through this stage at that age, and it totally passed! I just bought a whole bunch of super cheap fancy (and totally hideous, in my opinion...) dresses from Goodwill, paired them with bike shorts, shrugged my shoulders, and pretty much let her wear and tear them. Within a few months she was happy to wear casual clothes again.

Can you convince her that a peplum shirt is a dress? That’s our compromise. Though I rarely find that dresses are not practical as long as they have leggings under them. The primary ones have good twirl and hold up to playground and other use.

Ditto what @yoursilverlining: said. My almost 4 and almost 6 year olds will only wear dresses. It's not coming from school, because I'm in their school a lot and often they'll be the only child or one of only two or three children wearing dresses. My girls also prefer HA twirl or fizzy/swish dresses, or the Boden party tutu dresses, so we're not even talking casual play dresses! And the older one doesn't have particularly stylish fashion sense - so it's a hot mess of colors and patterns for her. The little one curates some pretty amazing & stylish combinations of tights, socks, sweaters, skirts, and dresses - I love it. It's a little annoying, but it's also kind of cute. Personally, I've just stopped buying separates for now (they do wear leggings under the dresses when it's cold) and I'm enjoying it. I figure at least the dresses aren't offensive - I know I'm on borrowed time until they (particularly the 4-year-old fashonista) discover stores like Justice and The Children's Place and want to wear the styles the tweens/teens are wearing.

My daughter's been like this since she was 2, ditto to the twirly part. She thinks dresses are fun and says she feels good in them, so who am I to say otherwise? (always leggings, tights, or shorts under them, and there's never been an activity she can't do in a dress)

Alice and Ames dresses or similar styles from ON? As long as she’s wearing leggings or bike shorts under, I’m all on board for dresses!

DD2 wouldn’t wear jeans/pants at all, only leggings so I just gave up on trying.

DD is 3 (on Friday!) I ‘make’ her wear pants and shorts to school. Otherwise team dresses only. I just bought a bunch of long sleeve dresses and tights. I give up.

My daughter is 3, almost 4, and whenever possible will only wear twirly dresses or skirts. And they have to be “cute”or “pretty.” I certainly don’t tell her this, and I don’t know where she gets it from. But I see her little friends at preschool and most of them are the same way. I feel sad I don’t get to pick her outfits anymore but I don’t press it. I want her to express herself and if that is how she wants to right now, I will let her. It is certainly a phase I teach at an elementary school and it isn’t like that at all for most young girls.

But I didn’t buy any winter clothes for next year because i don’t know if she will still be in this phase!

My DD is 4 and has been wearing dresses almost exclusively since whe was 2. She loves them and we live in a hot weather country, so all the better. I think many of the girls at preschool also wear dresses so there are definitely influences there. I was a super girly girl when I was little and would only wear dresses (with matching tights and jewelry) and now as an adult, it’s been a few years that I’m also in dresses 90% of the time.

My DD is only 10m, but I was exactly like that as a child. In grade school, the teacher actually called my mom and told her I needed to either wear pants or bring them to put under my dress, as I refused to participate in gym because I didn't want to mess up my clothes. I never heard anything about it from other kids and my mom was a "tomboy", so it's just the way I was (am).

I'm 37 and still almost exclusively wear dresses. Lol