Target Replies to Mom's Complaints About Girls' Clothing Sizes

Target has invited the mom to offer feedback on its clothing lines

ByABC News
October 8, 2014, 10:13 AM

— -- A Pennsylvania mom who noticed while shopping in Target that clothing sizes were shrinking for her growing daughters will now be helping the retail chain with feedback on its clothing lines.

Stephanie Giese, a blogger and mother of three, wrote a blog post last month titled, “A Target Intervention on Behalf of My Daughters.”

The post took Target to task for offering girls’ clothes that were getting smaller and smaller as the sizes were supposed to increase.

“You are making our daughters’ clothes wrong,” wrote Giese, whose two daughters are ages 5 and 2.

“I’m sure you already know this, but your size 5T shorts are actually smaller than many size 2T shorts made by other brands,” she continued. “Why are you offering my kindergartener clothes that are sized for children less than half her age?”

The post went viral and drew thousands of comments from other parents as concerned as Giese.

“Just going into the stores and noticing that things are starting to be cut a lot shorter,” Giese told ABC News of how she was motivated to write the post. “I think it is a little bit ridiculous.”

A sampling by ABC News at a Target store in New York City found that girls’ clothes were more form-fitting than boys’ clothes. In the same sizes and brands of shorts, T-shirts and jeans for boys and girls purchased by ABC News, the girls’ shorts were nearly 3-inches shorter than the boys.

The girls’ jeans were also tighter and the girls’ T-shirts were more body-hugging.

When officials from Target saw Giese’s post, they reached out to her directly.

“They offered to set up a phone call with me and one of their designers,” Giese told ABC News. “They also offered to send me samples of clothes for children and I can give them feedback on that.”

In a statement to ABC News, the Minnesota-based company says they hope the outreach to Giese will help.

“We’ll take her feedback into consideration and hope our response helped address some of her concerns,” the statement read.