That old story, I thought that was done with?

My best friend, my cartoon-looking friend and I were at the food court in the hospital after school(the school is right by the hospital) and after we'd picked up our food we went to leave, passing by a woman with her child. The woman looked us up and down and grabbed her child's hand pulling her to her other side and keeping her close.
What, I am curious, is the point of this? What did she think we would do to her child? Mug her? The child herself, did not seem particularly frightened by us, and was not young so there was no clear reason to pull her about by her hand.

What gets me, is the only reason I can see to react that way is one or all of our appearances, as none of us behave in a vulgar way in public. I don't often get offended about silly things, but this gets me rilled up. I am polite, caring, inquisitive and involved in causes and my friends are similar. The other thing I'd like to know is just what bugged her? My friends cartoonishly bright pink hair(perhaps she feared her child would be blinded), the spikes on my jacket, our bright lipsticks, my friends' freakishly tall height, or just simply that we are teenagers?

The other thing about this that unsettled me was the child's attire. She was wearing Victoria Secret's PINK line head to toe, she was so young that she had get to develop any curves and the clothes sagged awkwardly, what is it about our society that makes parents go out of their way to avoid an older teen who has evolved their fashion to suit themselves but at the same time allows their young child to wear head-to-toe label fashion? The kid will outgrow it and they shouldn't yet care about clothes like that. Until I was about 12 I had no "fashion" to speak of and certainly my mother would never have purchased anything that expensive.