Shopping: From a Fat Girl's Perspective

When it comes to shopping for clothing, it is a huge struggle (No pun intended). Not every store carries clothing bigger than size 16 , and if they do it's typically the smallest section of the store. I still don't 100% enjoy clothing shopping, but the hatred I had for it used to be much stronger. I used to dread the days where I would come home from school knowing my mom was going to take me to the mall to shop for clothing. Most of the times, I'd end up crying in the dressing room because the clothing that I actually liked barely fit me. My emotions were even worse when going to the mall with my friends. We would go to stores that didn't have my size and I never ended up buying clothing. I was too embarrassed to tell them how I needed to go to a specific store in order to find clothing that fit me. It might sound silly, but I was scared of being judged and just didn't know how they'd react. After many mall trips, I began to come out of my shell. One day while we were at the mall, I asked, "Hey, can we go to Torrid?" I was a bit nervous about how they'd react, but it was honestly a life changing moment. When walking into Torrid, they got the idea that it was a store for bigger women. At first, they let me look around for stuff, and kept to themselves. After a couple minutes of being in the store, they started finding stuff that they wanted me to try on. All of them were looking for dresses/shirts and would bring them to me while asking, "Can you please try this on??" Looking back, I can tell that their goal was to make me feel comfortable. All they wanted was for me to know that my body is not a burden and that they loved me regardless of my size. It's a day that has stuck with me and I will forever appreciate them for that.

Today, I'm a lot more comfortable when it comes to going shopping with my friends. I have about 5 stores that I depend when it comes to shopping for an outfit. My wardrobe mainly consists of Torrid, Lane Bryant, ASOS, and Charlotte Russe, and Fashion To Figure.

ASOS is probably my favorite store. It's only online which some people may dislike, but for me it's never been a problem. They have a huge plus size collection for both men and women. It reminds me of an Urban Outfitters 2.0 and has very cute clothing,

Torrid is an amazing store. It's main goal is to provide for plus size women, but they also want their style to be available to non-plus size women. Their clothing is more for designed for a younger audience which is helpful for me due to the fact I'm a fat girl that's still in high school.

Charlotte Russe's plus size collection isn't too big, but the stuff that they do have is very cute. Their prices are also on the cheaper side which is helpful to those that may not be able to afford ASOS' or Torrid's expensive prices.

Lane Bryant is a store with mainly plus size clothing. Their clothing is definitely made for an older audience. Their clothing collection consists of business wear and special occasion outfits. I don't do too much shopping there. The only time I'll go there is when I'm looking for a dress.

Lastly, Fashion To Figure is a store made to provide for mainly plus size women. They mostly sell outfits for special occasions (Dresses, Jumpsuits, and more) I actually happen to own a lot of dresses from this store.