Lexi Harris is a 13-year-old girl from Wichita, Kansas, and like most girls her age, Lexi was trying to find the perfect dress for an upcoming dance at school. As you probably remember, this experience can be fun or stressful. The last thing a teenager needs is for someone to tell them to put on some Spanx under their dress.
But that’s what happened at a Dillard’s department store recently, according to Fox 8 news.
During a shopping trip, Megan Harris, Lexi’s mom, encouraged her daughter to try on the red dress – much like my mom would have asked me to try on something she thought might be cute or look nice on me – so the girl did it to humor her mother.
The dress simply wasn’t right for the girl’s age.
“I said, ‘You look like you’re 25 years old. I can’t let you out in that,'” Harris tells Buzzfeed.
Still, mom took a photo of Lexis in the dress and that’s when the drama unfolded. The saleswoman saw Lexi in the dress and Buzzfeed reports that Harris says the saleswoman called Lexi fat and suggested she wear Spanx.
Mom reached out to Dillard’s to voice her concern after the incident, but didn’t get a call back so she took to Facebook with this post:
Dear sales lady at Dillard’s Towne East Mall,
This is my teenage daughter who wanted to try on dresses for an upcoming formal. I found this dress and asked her to try it on. She told me this was not her style, but tried it on for me. I told her how grown up it made her look and she smiled, and told me this made her look too old but still, she let me take a picture. Right after that, you entered and told my daughter she needed to wear SPANX if she wanted to wear this dress. I told my daughter to go change. I told you that she was just fine without SPANX. You continued to argue with me. We left soon after. I wish I had told you how many girls suffer from poor self image and telling them they need something to make them perfect can be very damaging. Girls of all ages, shapes and sizes are perfect because that is how God made them. If they feel good in a dress, that is all that should matter. My daughter is tall, she swims, runs, dances and does yoga. She’s fit. She’s beautiful. She did not need you telling her that she is not perfect. I hope this is shared and gets back to you so that you should not say something like that to a girl ever again. You never know what negative or positive thoughts they are thinking about themselves.
Sincerely,
Mother of a beautiful girl
Dillard’s did end up getting in touch with Harris after she wrote an open letter to the store, and she says they were very nice. But honestly, I still think this entire situation is insane. Who does this saleswoman think she is? This girl is 13-years-old – she doesn’t need anyone telling her that there’s something wrong with her body. She looks like a perfectly healthy and happy 13-year-old to me.
This one really hits home with me. I have always had body image issues and I’ve been wearing control top panty hose and now Spanx for years because, well, someone told me I should. I’ve been shamed so many times for the way I look and you know what? It’s not fair. It never has been and I can’t stand to hear stories like this. I’m so happy that many people were just as outraged as I am by this incident.
Do you agree with me or think I’m overreacting? Tell us in the comments section below.
Photo courtesy of Fox 8 News
