A friend and I during the summer – notice my “capris” (Image via Anderson Vasquez)

How difficult is it for you to buy pants? Yes, pants, the material that covers your legs type of pants. Well, you might be wondering why anyone would ask such a stupid question. Anyways, there are tons of stores at your local mall that you can run into and purchase a pair of pants whenever you feel like it. There are light wash jeans, dark wash jeans, black jeans, white jeans, skinny jeans, flare jeans, dress pants, leggings, sweatpants, you name it; the variety is endless! Sometimes, you may feel overwhelmed by all the potential options to choose from. Luckily, I don’t have this problem. 

As mentioned before, I absolutely love being 6’1, but it definitely has its disadvantages. Around the time I turned 12 and was 5’9, I realized that my pants just weren’t long enough anymore and highwaters were no longer in style (honestly, were they ever?). My legs were (and still are) extremely long and somewhat disproportional in comparison to the rest of my body.

The meme I am often compared to (Image via Popjustice)

Anyways, back to my dilemma. So, highwaters were no longer sufficient, but I had no clue what to do. I tried stretching my jeans and I even tried buying bigger sizes – but that simply resulted in a larger waist size and the same length. Just when I was ready to give up and pretend that my pants were capris for the rest of my life, my swim coach, who was pretty tall herself, informed my mom and me that Aeropostale, Hollister, and American Eagle sold jeans in lengths. I stocked up on jeans and was super excited to not wear capris in the middle of the winter.   

I was living contently until I hit ANOTHER growth spurt around 14 and my LONG jeans weren’t long enough. I had hit 6 foot and my new favorite clothing item – my long pants – were about 2 inches too short. Just fantastic! How is it possible that LONG jeans are too SHORT? I was beyond annoyed. I had no clue what to do. I visited every store in my mall in search of a “longer long” pant size, and I found – you guessed it – nothing. 

 Now, I REALLY thought that I was going to have to wear “capris” for the rest of my life. That was until I went back to American Eagle for the 4th time and tried on about 6 pairs of long jeans just for none of them to fit adequately in length. After walking out of the dressing room miserably to show my mom that none of them fit appropriately, the employee asked me if I was looking for a longer pant. I told her that the pants I was wearing were the long pant, and that’s when she enlightened me that American Eagle sells EXTRA long jeans, however online only. 

I’m sure you could imagine my excitement, I was ecstatic that once again I wouldn’t have to pretend that capris were in style during seasons that they were NOT appropriate for. However, that excitement became a bit inhibited when I realized that the only pants that I could get online in an extra-long were jeans.  

To this day, I still get every single pair of my jeans from American Eagle, simply because they are the only place I have found that sells extra-long jeans at a price that doesn’t make me nauseous. It is still unfortunate that finding dress pants, khakis, leggings, and sweatpants that are the right length for me is nearly impossible, but I have improvised by investing in men’s sweatpants, wearing tall socks to cover my leggings, and still using the capris tactic with khakis. 

Regardless, I still owe it all to American Eagle for at least allowing me to find jeans my length. Being tall has its perks and downfalls, but in the end, there’s always a valuable lesson to be learned. For me, I learned to never EVER take my pants for granted and to always remember that ankle coverage is a privilege, not a right. 

Tune in next week to continue our delve into the life of a tall female! 

Madison