I was thinking about it when I got started on the replacement thyroid hormones. My very likeable (and very thin) doctor said laughingly, "Now, I don't think you should be expecting to become a size 5 overnight..." and I said, "Oh, no. Heck, size 5 would *not* be healthy for my body." And there was a little silence. I realized that my very intelligent, supportive, understanding doctor was not really sure that there was a size that would be 'too small,' except maybe down to size 0. But I remember when I was 13. I was active, I had started getting my figure maybe a year and a half before. I had that kind of thinness only younger adolescent girls have, the kind you know doesn't last, even though it's what our standards of beauty are based on. I was a size 14.

I don't know how tall you are or what your build is like, but I can tell you that a size 14 ain't what it used to be. I remember being at a reasonable weight and wearing size 12 and occasionally size 10 clothes. Now I weigh less than I did since my adolescence, but I don't think I'm thin, just, well, normal. And I'm wearing a size 6, with occasional delvings into size 4. It's just weird. I knew size inflation was standard for more expensive clothes, but I hadn't realized there'd been such a change all the way down.

Or am I just totally misremembering? I wish I could find some of those smaller sizes from back when to see if they were really as teeny as I remember them. And are there now sizes below size 0?