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This might seem like an odd article to a lot of people, especially those who grew up wearing leggings. However, I wanted to write it anyway and share my story.
I grew up hating leggings. I was told wearing tight leggings made a girl a sl*t and that she was asking for attention. Or that if I wore leggings without a long shirt then old men would stare at my butt. I, like many young children, was very impressionable and believed this wholeheartedly. Whenever I wore any slightly tight pants, I felt constantly guilty. I felt ashamed and always wore oversized shirts. I can understand protecting young girls and not dressing children as adults, however, the person in my life who told me this went too far.
Now, I’m not trying to trauma dump on anyone, so I won’t go into any more of the specifics of my past. I want to talk about now how I learned to like leggings. It started this year; I kept seeing girls in my classes wearing these Aerie Leggings, and I just found them *so* cute. I wanted to wear them, but that little part of my mind kept repeating what I had heard all my life. But I realized over the past year that no one was looking at these girls shamefully, if anything they were all complimenting each other. And, I’m an adult now; I feel I can wear them without having to worry about leering eyes. So, I tried a pair on. And I loved them! It still took a few months before I could wear them without a baggy shirt, but recently, I’ve gotten there.
I know this isn’t the most *overcoming* story or challenging, but this still was something that took me a long time to accept. I feel like too often we shame women for how they present their bodies, even at a young age. We tell them men will leer at them and share stories of cat-calling. I’m not saying that little girls should be traipsing in revealing clothing, I believe quite the opposite. But, I also don’t believe that we should put other women down for how they dress. Girls of any age need to learn about body positivity and how important it is to support each other.