One thing that a lot of people don't actually put into perspective is the way sizes have changed over the years.
I'm 36 now. When I was in high school I was 5'4" and 95 pounds. I wore either a size 5 or a size 5/6. Women who wore size 9/10 or 11/12 generally looked healthy or even slender depending on their height and build.
Over the past 20 years sizing has changed in women's clothing because studies have found that women feel better about themselves if they wear a smaller size.
So now, two kids and 15 pounds heavier, I wear anything from a kid's 14 up to an adult 4, depending on the brand and cut. The adult size 4s are few and far between...most are too large on me. I outgrew kid's size 14 in the 7th grade, but now at 36 and much larger I fit in them again? Something just isn't right about that! There are plenty of grown women out there who are a lot smaller than me, but now they can't find "mature" clothes to fit them because the size 3 from the 1980s is now closer to a kid's size 12.
The clothing industry has served no good in this change other than to pump up womens' egos by making them think they are healthier than they really are. Twenty years ago a size 6 woman was very slender...today most people still have the mind set that a size 6 is the perfect size, and I'm not arguing that some tall women who wear a size 6 are very slender, but a size 6 today isn't a true size 6...it's a size 10 by historical standards. By today's sizing standards, most shorter women (5'4" and under) who wear a size 6 probably need to lose a few pounds. Obviously the 100 pound, size 6 person who posted before is a major exception to this.