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This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at UCSB chapter.

You wake up in the morning and look through your closet for something to wear for the day. You pick out a nice dress or a trusty pair of jeans, and it’s only after you’ve put it on that you realize the fit is snug and the zipper isn’t coming up as easily as you’d want it to. Even when you manage to get that pesky zipper closed, you find yourself not feeling great.

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We’ve all had this experience before. It makes sense, our bodies are always changing and it’s impossible to constantly be the same size your whole life. What doesn’t make sense is to keep trying to wear clothes that we don’t feel comfortable in.

If you’ve ever felt bad after putting on a piece of clothing you own because it didn’t fit well, don’t torture yourself by constantly wearing that thing. You may have reasons to keep certain clothes, whether it’s because that article of clothing has sentimental value or because you feel it will motivate you to get back to the size you used to be. While there’s nothing inherently bad about those reasons, when we make ourselves wear clothes that we don’t feel good in, it can have an effect on our confidence.

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When you put on a pair of some old jeans, for example, and find that they are too small, it is likely you’ll feel not only physically uncomfortable but mentally as well. You’ve conditioned yourself to believe that those jeans should fit when you put them on; and when they don’t, it can make you upset. Everytime you put those jeans on thereafter is just a reminder that something isn’t right. The issue then comes when we tell ourselves that we need to fit into those jeans, that we need to stay the same size.

As humans, we should never feel like a change in clothing size is necessarily a bad thing. Regardless of changes in diet and exercise, our bodies naturally just change over time. As long as we’re healthy, we should never feel like we need to be a certain size or shape or that we need to maintain our same size and shape forever. What needing a different size in clothes often means is that we are just human. We should never feel bad if old clothes don’t fit. Instead, see it as an opportunity to find clothes that do.

Sally is a fourth year communication student at UCSB. Her favorite things to do include traveling, eating, and binge watching YouTube videos. In her ideal future, she is either a research professor or market analyst for a digital entertainment company and living in her hometown of LA with a hypoallergenic cat.
Adar Levy

UCSB '19

Adar is a fourth-year student at UC Santa Barbara, studying Sociology. She is an avid creative writer, podcast listener, music enthusiast, and foodie. Loving everything from fashion and lifestyle to women's empowerment, she hopes to work for a major women's publication one day. See what Adar is up to on Instagram @adarbear.