All-American restaurant disputes airhead bimbo image
by Rhonda Cookus
reporter

   Bimbo. Airhead. Easy. These names may sound familiar to Hooters’ girls, but some TCC students want people to know those descriptions are wrong.
   “People always think we’re stupid and dumb. We’re always being judged. They usually wonder how we can actually go to college,” Michelle Yourek, 18, said.
   Yourek, a student on NE Campus, has worked for Hooters for more than six months. She is currently undecided about her major but knows she wants something in the field of science.
   According to depictions in movies and television programs, the stereotypical Hooters’ girl has a perfect body, a big chest and nothing upstairs.
   Some people never look past the stereotype, the waitresses say.
   They usually see only the restaurant as “the closest thing to a gentlemen’s club” and use that tag to judge the wait staff, Yourek said.
   Talking to the employees at a local Hooters revealed that most of the girls who work at Hooters are in college and have specific goals.
   These girls major in dental hygiene, communications, accounting, finance and business. Such professions require a brain, which is why these girls say they work at Hooters.
   Hooters management helps its employees with college and provides an environment that helps them get used to the real world, the waitresses say.
   “The managers want us to succeed, and you learn how to deal with people in a positive way no matter what the situation,” Sarah Stevens, 18, also a NE student, said.
   Hooters reimburses employees based on grades and works schedules around school. Waitresses who are away at college sometimes return to Hooters during breaks or for a few weekends a month.
   Managers say they allow this flexible work schedule because they understand the importance of school. They let their employees work on homework when the store is not busy, and some managers say they help when they can.
   “You can make good enough money to work part-time and go to school full-time,” Keenan Ryan, 19, said.
   Like most employees at the North Richland Hills location, the accounting major attends NE Campus.
   Waiting tables at Hooters does not have to be a dead end or college job, the employees agree. A waitress can easily work her way up, if she chooses, in the company.
   Most restaurants offer positions in management, but at Hooters an employee can work for the corporate office. Such positions are lifelong careers, managers say.
   Because of the tight shirts and small orange shorts, some people have erroneously compared Hooters to a strip-club restaurant, Ryan said.
   To keep such misconceptions away, Hooters has a strict rule that if a girl chooses to have a second job, it cannot be at a “shaker bar.” The rule requires managers to give the employee an ultimatum to choose Hooters or the strip club.
   A woman opened the first Hooters in 1983 as a neighborhood restaurant with a family atmosphere.
   However, the public does not always share that view.
   Managers say they sometimes receive calls asking how much lap dances cost. Most restaurants that offer “Kids-eat-free” on Saturdays do not provide such services, the managers point out.
   Stereotypes aside, most of Hooters wait staff say they collect their paychecks, pay their tuition and prepare for their future.