Are Your Clothes Sizes Are Going Up? Don't Worry, Those Numbers Mean Nothing

Have you ever wondered why your clothes seem to be one size at one store and and completely different at others?

So did Deena Shoemaker, who was cleaning out her closet when she realized just how dramatically different the sizes on her pants were. As a camp counselor, church youth group leader, and mentor, Shoemaker has worked with teen and preteen girls for years and has heard their heartbreaking stories of insecurity. She decided to post a picture of herself wearing many sizes to Facebook in hopes that those she’s mentored over the years would see that some silly number on a tag does not define them.

“I remembered all the times I’ve heard girls say they’re ‘fat’ because they went up a pant size, or talked about all the diets they’ve been on,” Shoemaker told The Huffington Post.

Facebook / Deena Shoemaker

“I’ve tried telling them it’s not true but they never really seemed to believe me. All the pieces fell into place for me when I saw my own pants. The lies they were believing were coming from something so commonplace that they didn’t even recognize it as the source of their hurt.”

Read More: Everyone Is Going Nuts Over This New Ad, And It’s For The Best Reason

Body-positive plus-size model Tess Holliday posted the image below in response to critics who say she doesn’t “look” like a size 22. In fact, sizes fluctuate so much that Holliday wears sizes between large and 4X!