Sizing chaos m e e t y o u r t y p i c a l Like many girls her age, she loves to keep up with the latest fashion trends and explore new ways to express herself. Shopping is fun, but it won’t always be this way. Scroll XXS XS S M L XL XXL “Junior’s” clothing lines often channel tweens’ interests with youthful styles that fit young girls as they grow. For now, our typical (or median) 11-year-old wears a size 9 in the junior’s section, which is also considered a size Medium . But not all tweens wear the same size. If we were to look at a sample of all 10- and 11-year-old girls in the U.S. from the National Center for Health Statistics, here are the junior’s sizes that match up with their waistline measurements. By age 15 , most girls have gone through growth spurts and puberty, and they’ve reached their adult height. Many have started to outgrow the junior’s size section. This marks an important turning point as they shift into women’s sizes. Girls who fall along the bottom 10th percentile can now wear an Extra Small in women’s clothing, while girls near the 90th percentile will find that an Extra Large generally fits. The median 15-year-old wears a Medium, as she has throughout most of her childhood. This means for the first time ever, most girls in their cohort will be able to find a size in the women’s clothing section. This will also likely be the last time this ever happens in their lives. f i t 4 a By Amanda Sakuma with Jan Diehm I remember once being that teen girl shopping in the women’s section for the first time. I took stacks upon stacks of jeans with me to the dressing room, searching in vain for that one pair that fit perfectly. Over 20 years later, my hunt for the ideal pair of jeans continues. But now as an adult, I’m stuck with the countless ways that women’s apparel is not made for the average person, like me. Children’s clothing sizes are often tied to a kid’s age or stage of development. The idea is that as a young person grows older, her clothes will evolve with her. Youth styles tend to be boxy and oversized to allow room for kids to move and grow. By early adolescence, apparel for girls becomes more fitted. Junior’s styles have higher waistlines and less-pronounced curves compared to adult clothing lines. In short: clothes for tweens are made for tween bodies. By the time most teenage girls can wear women’s clothes — around age 15 — their options are seemingly endless. But the evolution in clothing sizes that followed girls throughout childhood abruptly stops there. This is the reality I find myself reckoning with today: Women’s clothing — designed for adults — fits modern teen girls better. Age: 14-15 Sizes: Women’s Waistline in Inches XXS XS S M L XL XXL At age 15 a size Medium still equals the median waistline but, from here on, the two will diverge. In addition to generic letter sizes (Small, Medium, Large etc.), women have a numeric sizing system that is designed to be more tailored and precise. Here, the median 15-year-ol

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