There are many awkward things about being in your twenties.  We talk about a lot of these things on this blog.  Awkward relationships, career paths, schooling choices, you name it. Recently, however, I’ve stumbled upon an awkward part of my twenties that I’d never fully considered before now. It is the awkwardness of twenty something clothes shopping.

Here is the main issue.  I go into the major department stores and I see two sections:  Juniors and Women.  Now about 90 percent of the clothing in the juniors section stopped appealing to me at age 17. And what I might still find appealing, I cannot wear because the sizes are so awkward.  Apparently the fashion world believes that no girl develops an actual body until after 18 because let me tell you—there ain’t no room for any of my curves in that clothing. Either that or they want to encourage every teenage girl to dress like a whore.  Neither mentality gives me any faith in the human race.

Then we move on to the women’s section. Here I am faced with the opposite extreme. Suddenly I am suffocating in a land of elastic waistbands and ugly floral patterns. Mom jeans with their high waists and guaranteed camel toe jump out at me around every corner.  Sure, there are a few good choices that I might be able to find among the acres of racks, but it takes so much time to wade through the crappy choices that I don’t even have the energy to try anything on by the time I actually find something decent. By then I have a foul temper and I just want to drown my feelings in a cinnabon.

Now I know what you’re going to say. What about non department stores? Why not go to Express or the Gap?  My answer to that is—I am a twenty something who doesn’t know what they’re doing in life and I didn’t get an amazing job right out of college with a huge salary that I can use at the ridiculously expensive stores that actually cater to women in my demographic.  How much sense does it make to rack up the prices on clothes meant for people who haven’t even found real jobs yet? Or who have real jobs but are still in the hole financially because of student loans? And those few stores catering to my demographic that actually are cheap, are cheap for a reason. I can’t tell you how many things I’ve purchased at Forever 21, Old Navy, or H&M that shrunk, or had seams come out, or faded within a month of wearing.  I mean come on people!  Is it too much to ask, when going through the complete whirlwind and emotional upheaval of my twenties, to at least look good while doing it? Is it?

Ok. Rant over.