Sadie is too young for this. For
most of her life everything fit fine. Clothes fit her well and were easy to put
on and take off. She likes her body as much as one does when they don’t even
think about whether liking it or not even matters. Clothes are clothes and a
body is a body.
Suddenly budding adolescents starts
to make some changes to her belly, hips and thighs. Always a stick figure and
now there are other angles and shapes to contend with that she never had to
consider before. She never really cared about clothes one way or the other
until recently. She likes her stretch pants and easy colorful (and stained)
t-shirts with cool printed images and words like, “I Hate Homework!!”, “YUM
YUM!” , “GAP GIRL!” and other brands that mean mostly nothing to her at all.
Super easy to take care of each day; putting on clothes is as easy as quickly
brushing teeth or hair. She could definitely do it with her eyes closed if necessary.
Socks are also simple because mismatched is something she enjoys and if the
socks that are partnered become undone, anything will do and actually look
cute.
However, the curves are starting to
make her wonder what’s up. She really has no time and very little interest in
navigating her life in a new direction as putting on clothes becomes more
problematic. Her mom is always complementary of her choices and there are a lot
of hand-me-downs mixed in with some new bought items in her drawers. She likes
to mix and match and doesn’t even mind the name tags of the other kids attached
to her clothes. She will even say, “I’m wearing Kate’s shirt and Megan’s
pants!” Her mom appreciates the clothes and they’ve come in handy over the
years.
Jeans then start to make more of an
appearance in her wardrobe. They are more sophisticated and especially ones
which are slightly ripped or tattered make her happy. She really likes them a
lot, but starts to notice they are more difficult to wear after they are washed
and dried. It goes something like this:
Pull jeans out of laundry bag.
Inspect them first front, then back and especially the back looks like the
jeans are probably too small, the wrong size. They are a great color otherwise
it’s hard to remember why jeans are considered to be comfortable clothing. Step
into them. Palpably tight, but still button on top, almost. Lying flat on back on the bed wiggling toes sucking
in belly, button top button. Zip. Pull self up look in mirror. Deep knee bend.
Once, twice, three times. Sit on bed. Put legs above head and propel body up.
Deep knee bends again. Question self as tugging on backside and pulling waist
out. Pull again. Back on bed and zip again because zipper started to drop.
Start to soften. Gut feels okay.
Stand up. Walk. All is good.
Is this worth all the work? Of
course it is worth it, but it also in subtle ways is forcing her to rethink her
body. No other article of clothing has ever done this before and hopefully no
other article will.
Somehow she has the sneaking
suspicion that this is just the beginning of a long clothing saga which will influence her
feelings about her body and though she isn’t in the mood to think much about it
now, there is a part of her which dreads it, but gets that this is also an
opportunity to be more mature and find new ways of expressing herself and her
personal, unique style.
But who has time for this?
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