Vanity Sizing My Butt

One Size Fits Nobody: Seeking a Steady 4 or a 10 was recently published by the New York Times. The whole article goes on about the ridiculousness that is female clothing sizes. I always find these articles fascinating. While reading the article I thought back to my sizes over the years.

When I was in middle school and shopping at the Weathervane I started with size 7 bottoms. By the time I hit high school I was capping off at 11s. Classmates were stunned, I admit I was rather gangley looking, but thighs do not lie, and they were not getting into anything in single digits by the time I hit 10th grade.

Now let's flash forward into college and the first year out in the real world. Again, I am looking at pants at 8s, 10s, and dresses at 6s. The dresses could be smaller because the top part of me is rather tiny and as long as it didn't have to hug the hips, I can get away with a dress made for a big tween.

Then came the biggest surprise of my life. I decided to splurge on a pair of jeans and go to Lucky. While looking around I asked for an 8 like always. The girl laughed at me and said I needed a 4. I told her hell no, I have never been that small (and mind you I do weigh more than I did in middle school). Low and behold, there was egg on my face because at 23 I was wearing the smallest size I could ever remember. To this day I stay around a 4-6 in pants, and every time I pick up a pair I am convinced that something is off.

I would be much happier wearing a larger numbered (size would technically be the same) garment. I know I have more mass than my middle school self, and would appreciate this reflecting in my clothing. Additionally, I have been too big for my mother's wedding dress since 9th grade. I know there is no way she was a negative number, so really, these sizes need to be realistic.

In the end, I hate vanity sizing. I would love some standard sizing. And if that made me 14 or 20 so be it. I just don't want to feel like I have a prepubescent body.