HEALTH

I'm 14 and in my freshman year, and my feet are size 14 womens. I hate having to get boys' shoes and never being able to wear heels or girly shoes. Is there a surgery to make my feet smaller?

Up until the 1900s, wealthy young women in China had their feet bound because small feet were considered ladylike and beautiful. Much like having pale skin several hundred years ago in Western Europe meant that you didn’t have to work outdoors and were thus part of the upper class, having your feet bound in China meant that you physically couldn’t work. Binding your feet started at a very young age—from two to five years old—and involved breaking the toe joints so you could bend them toward the sole of your foot. It was incredibly painful and often resulted in infection and life-long disability.

I’m not telling you this to gross you out, but to show you how some women have gone to great lengths for smaller feet. While I’m sure there are some surgeons out there who would be willing to alter the length of the bones in your feet to make them smaller, I am just as sure that there are far more surgeons and doctors who would absolutely not recommend destroying your body in such a way.

I know it’s not fun to be limited by your shoe size, but instead of thinking of what your feet don’t allow you to do, like wearing a lot of girly shoes, focus on what they can do, like carry you across the finish line when you run the mile in gym. To find the shoes you’re craving, you might have to get creative. Try shopping online, which let you search by shoe size to find the pair of your dreams.

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by Brittany Taylor | 4/23/2019