( The Empowering Shirt )

“I am short. Not super short, but I’m 170cm, and the average where I grew up is 182cm, so I’ve always felt short, and it’s always bugged me. Not in a major sort of way, but enough that I feel self-conscious about it, and always try to look as tall as I can.”

I bought this shirt because I love the colours and it was a cheap shirt which I bought secondhand for less than the price of a coke. For a while I wore it all the time. Then a close friend pointed out that while it fits me really well, it somehow makes me look smaller than I am. So I took it off, but couldn’t really bring myself to throw it out or give it away.

Then one day when I was pretty much out of clothes, I found it in my closet and decided to give it another go. That day, several people told me I looked good. Since then I’ve slowly gotten less worried about my height, and now I feel that rather than diminishing me, the shirt emphasizes who I am. Admittedly in ways I’m still not completely comfortable with it; I still don’t wear it all that often. But whenever I find myself rejecting it because of the short thing, I make myself wear it. And feel better about my height

( Zach )
( United Kingdom )