Day 7: Making Peace with Clothes

From November 4th-13th my blog is hosting the experiences of 10 different women through the BYU Women's Services and Resources Recapturing Beauty campaign. Go here or here to read more about the 10-day challenge.

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Day 7 is written by Kelli Ricks! Kelli sat in front of me in Women's Chorus freshman year, and I quickly developed a secret, but strong lady crush on her. This year we got to become real life friends, and I am so grateful for that! Kelli is a junior from Puyallyp, WA finishing up her generals at BYU and transferring to UofU to study musicology next fall. Kelli loves ice cream and red lipstick, and hates the word 'rural'. 

Like for reals obsessed with this girl.

Hellooooo! I am so excited to be featured on Kylie’s blog today!

Let’s get down to business, shall we?

When Kylie sent out the list of challenge topics, I was the first one to respond, and I jumped all over this one.

I think that it might surprise a lot of people that I chose the topic of “Making peace with your clothes.”

I’m pretty well-known for some of the crazy things I wear. I don’t really lack confidence in that area. I mean, hello, overalls and Heidi hair. I’ve always been very comfortable wearing things that I feel really express myself.

So why did I choose this day?

Sure, I have no problem wearing MC Hammer pants in public. But I do have a huge problem with wearing clothes that I’m afraid will not flatter my figure.

Real talk: I have a big butt.

I would like to thank my mother for that. And her mom. And her mom’s mom.  And most likely her mom’s mom’s mom.

Throughout high school I would probably hear at least once a day, “She got a donk.”

…And that’s not an exaggeration. Those words literally came out of people’s mouths.

 I started to be really self-conscious about it. As in, I started hardly ever wearing pants and just rocked a skirt or dress every day. I still do this. And I can’t remember the last time I wore a regular outfit without wearing spandex underneath. How ridiculous is this? More often than not, I will go through the inconvenience of shaving, being cold, looking over-dressed, etc. before I give in and decide to wear a pair of jeans.

I have no problem having someone tell me, “your pants remind me of Aladdin,” or “Hey, princess Leia wants her hair back.” No problem at all.

But as soon as someone says something about my hips looking big in those jeans, game over. And they go in the back of the drawer.

So for my challenge day, I faced an article of clothing that had been sitting in my closet for over a year that I had worn a grand total of two times: the dreaded maxi skirt.

As a short girl with big hips, this has been my worst nightmare. I love high-waisted skirts because they accentuate my small waist and draw attention away from those bad boys.

But a maxi skirt? The exact opposite effect. However, I wanted to commit to this challenge, dang it! So I put it on, and rocked it the rest of the day.

Sure, I think I look bigger than I would with my favorite dresses. But you know what? That skirt is cute, and it’s comfortable, and everyone loved it. I loved it. I loved it because it gave me the courage to confront my self-consciousness and realize how ridiculous I was being.

If you want to wear something, wear it! Don’t let anyone’s opinions of what you look like keep you from expressing your style, including your own opinions. Embrace your curves. Embrace your angles. Embrace your desire to wear what you really want to wear, not just what you think you’re supposed to wear.

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Tomorrow's Challenge: Making Peace with your Genes

We want to hear about your experiences as well!
Tweet or Instagram with the hashtag #RecapturingBeauty about your journey over the next 10 days! You can follow @wsrbyu on Instagram and @byuwsr on Twitter, or me at @kylieinthesky on both. 

If you're also blogging about the Body Image Challenge, we want to see it! Add your post below and link back to this one so we can all share this experience together!