An interesting story caught my eye this morning about a Michigan teenager who won the chance to wear a $25,000 Versace dress to her prom. The thing is, she didn’t win this contest by chance. She won because she was the only girl who fit into the dress.

I’m not interesting in body-snarking a girl just because she’s a petite size zero, though I will say it was an interesting choice to use a dress worn by the very petite (5’1″!) Christina Ricci in a contest like this — how many teenage girls are 5’1″ and a size zero?

Among the pool in Waterford, Michigan? Apparently only one.  What bugs me about the article, is how it goes on and on and on about how ten other girls didn’t fit into the dress, but Kayla, like Cinderella, did, being a size zero. Ok, sure, let’s be happy for Cinderalla, but what about those ten girls who felt “fat” because they couldn’t zip into a doll dress? Nevermind that actual, legitimate “fat girls” couldn’t even ENTER the contest because there was no way in hell the dress would fit, by a mile.

Some days, I am starkly reminded of all the things fat girls just can’t have. Hell, in this case, it was unfair to anyone who wasn’t a size zero! No one can win.

I can’t help but flashback to my own prom era, and that whole malarkey. First of all, I didn’t have a date, being the tragically single, high school cliche I was. It wasn’t a big deal, but more annoying than that was not being able to find a single dress I liked that fit. I wasn’t going to wear a poofy ballgown going to a dance stag, and the dream dress I envisioned — a West Side Story style tea dress — wouldn’t come into fashion for another five years (WOE). So I wore a black skirt with a sparkly top — and not a sexy sparkly top; more like a sparkly blouse you might wear to the White House Correspondents Dinner… when you’re 50. It was all very tragic, unfashionable and fat.

Being a fat teenager = Terribly Other. I can’t even fathom what it feels like to go to the store and feel like you can try on any dress, and one of them (or more) is bound to look stunning on you. That was simply not my reality. (worst part? What I weighed around the time of my prom is my new goal. LOL)

My point is, girls larger than a size two didn’t even hope to ENTER this contest, let alone win. Setting aside the 2s to 10s, just think about all the fat girls who feel like shit because no one has designer dress contests for anyone of size. We’re not Cinderella. She was a size zero, apparently.

Anyone else have Prom regrets? I wish a) I had simply asked the boy I had a crush on and/or b) just not gone. Could have saved myself some teen angst LOL.