I’ve had large feet ever since I was born. My mother tells stories of how she used to feel my feet run up and down her side when she was pregnant with me, and how she had to return the newborn sized socks when I was born because my feet were too large for them.

As the youngest of 3 girls, I had the largest feet thanks to my 6’4″ tall father. Shoe shopping was very hard as a girl because my mother and grandmother found shoes for my sisters, but none of the stores’ sizes went high enough for me. We’d go from store to store looking for shoes for me while my sisters carried their new purchases in their hands. Everyone was finished shopping, and was waiting for me to be finished, too. I remember sitting in a store crying out of embarrassment on one occasion; I heard “no” too many times that day.

Later I just resolved that it’s just how life was. There were only 2 stores that carried my size, and the shoes were for old women. So there I was, a 12-year-old girl wearing 65-year-old women shoes. One pair were black nursing-looking shoes with x’s on the top and a raised comfort sole, then I had another pair of rubber looking shoes with a 2-inch sole. My last resolve was penny loafers that looked masculine and emphasized the length and width of my feet. In school,

I was teased relentlessly to shame, and prayed for my feet to shrink. Students called my long, slender feet planks and they would stare at my feet with smirks on their faces whenever I walked passed them to class. Their jokes, comments and stares never ceased. I was widely known as the girl with the big feet. It didn’t help that I had to wear skirts since I went to private school, and my skinny legs made my feet look even longer.

I got my first corns in 11th grade because I switched to public school and vowed not to be teased anymore, so I wore shoes that were so tight that I would feel painful shocks in my toes. In adulthood, I’ve still had a hard time finding shoes. Many of them I wear are too small or too large…until I found your web site from the msn.com article published in January. I had considered opening a shoe store for women with large feet or asking designers to extend their sizes, but thank God your store has already done it. The pair I bought fit perfectly and are stylish…and were on a very good sale.

Unfortunately, having large feet isn’t like being overweight and buying plus sized clothes. You can lose inches from your body, but you can’t lose them from your feet. You can change your weight, but not your shoe size.

L

2.6.06