13-year-old girl is made a model after store employee recommended Spanx

A 13-year-old Wichita girl not even old enough for prom has been whisked to New York City and into formal dresses after a Dillard’s employee suggested that a dress she was trying on would benefit from the addition of Spanx.

The story of Lexi Harris’ dressing-room advice was first told on Facebook by her mother, Megan, on Jan. 20, as an open letter to the Dillard’s employee and a defense of the beauty of her daughter.

As the contents of the post became well-known, online dress retailer PromGirl dubbed Lexi a model for its Real Girls campaign, which celebrates girls of all shapes, sizes and ethnicities, according to Seventeen magazine’s website. PromGirl carries designer dresses featured in the magazine.

In short order, Lexi had a photo shoot in New York City and is now featured in photos and a video for PromGirl Real Girls.

This is the original post that Megan Harris made after her and her daughter’s visit to Dillard’s:

“Dear sales lady at Dillard's Towne East Mall,

“This is my teenage daughter who wanted to try on dresses for an upcoming formal. I found this dress and asked her to try it on. She told me this was not her style, but tried it on for me. I told her how grown up it made her look and she smiled, and told me this made her look too old but still, she let me take a picture. Right after that, you entered and told my daughter she needed to wear SPANX if she wanted to wear this dress. I told my daughter to go change. I told you that she was just fine without SPANX. You continued to argue with me. We left soon after. I wish I had told you how many girls suffer from poor self image and telling them they need something to make them perfect can be very damaging. Girls of all ages, shapes and sizes are perfect because that is how God made them. If they feel good in a dress, that is all that should matter. My daughter is tall, she swims, runs, dances and does yoga. She's fit. She's beautiful. She did not need you telling her that she is not perfect. I hope this is shared and gets back to you so that you should not say something like that to a girl ever again. You never know what negative or positive thoughts they are thinking about themselves.

“Sincerely,

“Mother of a beautiful girl”

This story was originally published February 5, 2016 at 4:30 PM with the headline "13-year-old girl is made a model after store employee recommended Spanx."