I just returned home from the store with bags of clothes to keep my kids covered for the start of the new school year. While I’m sure that it will be only a few short months before they outgrow or put holes in their new wardrobe, for now we are set.
We had great success at a certain major retailer. They have competitive prices and gobs of clothes that strike a happy medium between what I find stylish and my kids deem cool/soft/sparkly enough and meet their high fashion standards.
They also offer a large range of sizes for adults and children. While I think it’s great that trendy styles are available for a wide range of body types, I was extremely disappointed when I saw that these sizes seem to shame kids who are bigger than their peers. At this store, boys' extended sizes are referred to as “husky” and girls, much like women, are called “plus-size”.
Body shaming with labels
Those two labels bring negative attention to bigger kids who are at a very susceptible age. The kids who require extended sizes are most often preteens who are likely already freaked out by their changing bodies. Calling them out by labeling clothes that fit them with words that insinuate being big, fat, heavy, or different is body shaming. Plain and simple.
My daughter is not plus-size and doesn’t need it sewn into her pants.
Being a late-blooming, chunky 12-year-old myself, I have vivid memories of the struggles of finding jeans that fit a body I didn’t yet love. I hadn’t traded my baby fat for the feminine figure I envied, so the only jeans that fit me well were JC Penney’s girls' “plus size.” I remember feeling good, for once, in these pants but was embarrassed by their label. I even would cut off the tags, so no friends would happen to get a glimpse of my "fat pants."
Perhaps my personal experience is why I was so disappointed by my discovery when shopping today that many stores are continuing a brand/sizing system that left me feeling less-than as a young kid. Maybe I’m overreacting to words that most people wouldn’t even think twice about, but if I still remember the shame I felt by being a 12-year-old in plus-size pants 25 years later, maybe it deserves some attention.
Let’s skip the labels and encourage body positivity
In a world where we are working so diligently to empower our children, at a time where we are so intentional about body positivity and loving ourselves, doesn’t it make sense to buy our kids clothes that fit them but doesn’t shame them?
So, big box stores, thank you for providing awesome clothes at affordable prices. Thank you for making them accessible to kids of all shapes and sizes. But please consider omitting the label on those sizes and the stigma that is attached. My daughter is not plus-size and doesn’t need it sewn into her pants.
Body positivity should start in the store.
Thanks,
A mom who loves her kids (and wants them to love their bodies)
