Clothing Sizes For Teenage Girls.

[TrophyEyes]

How realistic are they?

My niece is hardly what you'd call "fat", yet seems to be going through a very self conscious stage right now. She's 14, and convinced she's "stretching" clothes which are supposed to fit a 16 year old. How do I help her understand that size isn't correlated to age?

Also, why the hell are shops still allowed to do this? I mean, teenage girls are surrounded by all these pressures as it is... Is it really wise for shops to still stock clothes according to age, when not fitting into clothes relating to your age range could be so damaging emotionally in a teenage girl's mind? I mean, you have a 14 year old girl, feeling she's "fat", because 16 year old clothes are a little snug on her.

I can't think of any shops that 'age' things beyond about 13/14 tbh. My dds are 17 and 14 and buy stuff in sizes. DD1 is generally a size 6 and dd2 is generally a size 10 - poor dd2 is at a stage where she refuses to try things on because she thinks she's too big and tends to just wear baggy t-shirts and cardigans from Top Man of all places. :(

I guess walking around Topshop is the best way of seeing that girls are lots of sizes unrelated to age - but not sure how much it would actually help.

It's not just girl's clothes, boy's clothes do it as well, once they hit about 13 they need to move onto small adult clothes... I assume it's because they can then make more money out of selling them adult clothes rather than children's clothes.

I think most sizes are the opposite. I am a size 12 post baby and buy Tesco's range in 13-14 also, they seem to think 12 year old are about 6ft tall.

Utterly unless after about 11-13.

They think girls get taller not wider, they may remember breasts if your lucky, but hips are beyond them.

Next and M & S are reasonable, DD1 gets in to the right age Marks school shirts. The only teen thing she's worn for years and she has a couple of age 16 next things that fit (she's 14),

Small ladies petite sizes are expensive, but often the only choice.
Pineapple were a god send, as are red herring jeggings.

Tops are a nightmare because low necks are indecent without boobs and so are some dresses. DD spent a couple of summers in Marks T shirts, Vests under checked shirts also work well, even Primark £3 have adjustable straps.

The worst one was a prom dress, which deb web site said was chest 38 in age 16.
That should fit me, would it do up round my 34 inch DD, No

Band t-shirts are the way forward for flat chested teenage girls - nice high necklines! :)

At 14 she needs to be in adult clothes.

teenaged clothes, I think, are clothes for teenagers who haven't hit puberty yet, so no boobs, hips etc. This might be why she's feeling 'fat' - if she's got a woman's figure, she's just not going to fit into children's clothes.

"Teenage" clothes are just children's clothes made bigger based on height rather than actually on "age" (I remember Tammy girl age 14 being 160 cm, or similar).

Some 14 year olds are shaped like children only larger.

Other 14 year olds are shaped like women.

They will need differently-shaped clothes.

That's it, though, isn't it? 14 year olds are being sold an image of what a 14 year old should be shaped like, which doesn't take puberty into consideration. And it's damaging our teens. She's tiny, height wise, but her mother's side of the family is typical curvy.

I'll recommend the petite section to her and her mother. Thanks for everyone's thoughts.