A quinceañera celebrates a girls passage into womanhood with a fiesta for her fifteenth birthday. For many families, the parents have started saving for the quinceanera party the moment the mother gives birth to a girl. Many parents even mortgage their homes to hold this bigger than life party. It is an event where parents now give their daughter the right to be eligible for marriage, wearing make-up, jewelry, or heels, etc. The party/fiesta is a special time for a girl to feel like a princess in front of her family and friends. The Quinceañera is a Hispanic tradition of a young girl budding into womanhood. This is a huge event in a 15 year old's life where the fiesta is just as big as a wedding less the groom. The Quinceañera is filled with symbolic gestures and moments that signify a young girls transformation into a woman. The event starts with a mass and then ends with a fiesta.

Quinceañera dresses are truly the formals of all formals. Most girls claim that the biggest part of the celebration for them is to be able to wear a beautiful gown so that they feel like a princess.

The most symbolic moment is the exchange of shoes. The 15 year old (15 años) arrives in flats (those of a child) and leaves in high heels (signifying a woman).