Jean shopping. One of the most traumatizing and tear-inducing experiences for teenage girls around the world.
Trying not to cry in the dressing room while your friend or family member stands just on the other side of the curtain trying to get you to come out. Nothing fits right. Too baggy. Too tight. Too short. Too long. Yet, they were all the same cut and size from the same store! No two pieces are ever the same when it comes to women’s sizing, especially in jeans.
Vanity Sizing
So why does it seem like we can’t stick to one size when it comes to finding jeans that fit? Are we going crazy? VALLEY is here to tell you that you are not the problem. The stores selling you the jeans are, and it is called vanity sizing.
Vanity sizing is the act of labeling clothes as a smaller size than the actual cut and dimensions of the item. For example, a store might label a size 10 as an eight on the rack. Companies will do this as a marketing tactic to keep you buying items from their store as compared to others.
Vanity sizing takes advantage of women’s insecurities when it comes to size and clothing. It expects women to buy jeans from the store where they are the “smallest” size because it makes them feel better about themselves.
This only fuels women’s insecurity about their bodies and can lead to body dysmorphia due to never being able to gauge what size you truly are. This is damaging, especially to young girls.
Size Does Not Define Self-Worth
Societally, women have always felt pressure regarding their bodies. The pressure to have that unattainable “perfect body” has controlled how we view their bodies and in turn, how women measure their self-worth. While insecurity surrounding bodily image is not limited to just women, vanity sizing is often targeted towards women compared to men.
This could be due to women being seen as “easy targets” emotionally when it comes to sizing insecurity or just companies taking advantage of the fact that women’s bodies are so criticized in the media.
Whatever the reason, we need to stop basing our self-worth on the size printed on the tag of our jeans. Your size does not matter! Most of the time the number printed on the tag is not even an accurate or consistent representation of your size or your body. Size does not define our worth.
So the next time you go shopping for some new jeans and are sitting in the dressing room flashing back to middle school, remember that it is not because anything is wrong with your body. Never let the number printed on a tag define your self-worth. It’s just something companies use to sell clothes.
Do you have a jean-shopping horror story? Share it with VALLEY by mentioning us @VALLEYmag on X!
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