Clothing sizes? They’re about as reliable as a weather forecast from last week. A recent viral post by a woman named Jenna Parker highlights just how absurd these numbers can be and why we shouldn’t let them dictate our self-worth. Seriously, how many of us have a wardrobe filled with clothes in different sizes that all seem to fit just fine? It’s maddening, and for many women and girls, it can also be emotionally damaging.
When Jenna, a youth mentor, shared a collage of herself wearing pants in sizes ranging from 6 to 12, she didn’t expect the post to blow up. She merely wanted to reach out to the teen girls she had mentored over the years, showing them how wildly inconsistent sizing can be from one store to another. Instead, her message resonated with over 55,000 sharers and counting.
In her post, Jenna wrote, “As I’ve worked with young girls for six years, I’ve listened to them share their dieting struggles and weight loss goals, and I’ve comforted those who break down crying, asking if being thinner would have kept someone in their lives.” This resonated deeply with her as she reflected on her own clothing struggles.
While sorting through her own wardrobe, she noticed the ridiculous variations in size. “It struck me how my size 5 pants fit exactly the same as my size 12 ones. This is insane!” Jenna’s collage makes it crystal clear: clothing sizes are essentially nonsense, and no one should allow that arbitrary number to define their self-esteem or worth.
She points out that many of the girls she mentors grapple with eating disorders and self-harm, and negative size messaging only adds to their burdens. “When the fashion world tells them they’re not good enough, it piles on top of everything else they’re facing. They deserve better. They need to understand their real value,” she explains.
So many of us let those tags dictate our happiness, and Jenna felt compelled to voice her frustrations. “I’ve heard countless girls lament about being ‘fat’ after going up a size or obsessing over their diets. I’ve tried to convince them it’s all a lie, but they often don’t believe me. All of this clicked when I saw my own pants. The harm they’re experiencing comes from something so ordinary that they don’t even see it.”
Jenna acknowledges that it’s easy to explain that Photoshop alters images, but it’s far more challenging to convince a young girl that a clothing size doesn’t define her worth. “When a girl’s pants change from a size 9 to a size 16 and get labeled as ‘plus size,’ how can I fight that? Photo manipulation is one thing, but how do I tell her that the number inside her clothes doesn’t matter? How do I convince her that she shouldn’t skip meals for a month just because her size seems to have jumped?”
Even I sometimes fall for the trap of vanity sizing and feel down when a piece of clothing doesn’t fit as expected. I have a closet full of sizes 4 to 10 that, like Jenna’s collection, all fit me in some way. While I know rationally that it’s absurd to equate my worth with a number, it still stings to have to size up. Just imagine how much this affects a young girl navigating her self-image!
Jenna concludes with a powerful affirmation for all girls: “To my beautiful girls, whether you’re a size 2 or an 18, your size does not define your beauty; your life does. The size label is subjective, and it changes quickly. Stop buying into the societal norms about who you should be. You are lovely and loved just as you are.”
That’s a message we could all use, and it’s especially important for our youth to hear.
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In summary, Jenna Parker’s viral post sheds light on the absurdity of clothing sizes and encourages women to embrace their worth beyond those arbitrary numbers. Let’s remember that our value is not determined by a size label!