13-year-old Wichita 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.

“I thought 10 people would see it and they would all be my friends and just say, ‘Tell Lexi, “You’re pretty”’ and that’s it,” Megan Harris said Friday.

But the post got shared and shared and became so widespread that online dress retailer PromGirl contacted Harris on Jan. 28 and asked whether Lexi could be a model for its Real Girls campaign.

The campaign celebrates girls of all shapes, sizes and ethnicities, according to Seventeen magazine’s website. PromGirl carries designer dresses featured in the magazine.

In a “completely crazy” time frame, Megan Harris said, she, her daughter and 9-year-old son flew to New York City on Monday. They were treated to “Wicked” on Broadway that night, and then Lexi was all gussied up for photo and video shoots for the Real Girls campaign on Tuesday.

“It was amazing,” Lexi Harris, an eighth-grader who is home-schooled, said of the whirlwind. “It was my dream to go to New York and see a Broadway show.”

She got to go through 50 or 60 dresses to pick out a handful to wear for the photo shoots, her mother said. While Lexi had her makeup and hair done, it was in keeping with her age, Megan Harris said.

“It was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be,” Lexi said of her modeling gig. “It was pretty long, but it was fun rather than work.”

This is the original post that Megan Harris posted on Facebook along with a photo of Lexi after their 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”

Online commenters have been supportive of both the Harrises and the Dillard’s employee. Dillard’s has responded in this statement from corporate spokeswoman Julie Johnson Bull:

“Dillard’s sincerely regrets the unfortunate event that occurred between a valued customer and one of our associates. We have spoken to Ms. Harris and offered our personal apology to her and to her daughter for this unintended offense. Our associate, who has daughters and granddaughters, is understandably mortified, and has told us she would never speak to anyone with intent to offend. We train every associate to provide people with helpful, courteous and respectful service, which is a cornerstone of our company’s commitment to our customers.”

Megan Harris said she never wanted anything bad to happen to the employee.

“People make mistakes, absolutely,” she said.

And while Lexi says she probably will not shop at Dillard’s for now, she doesn’t rule it out in the future.

In the meantime, she has a new dress, courtesy of PromGirl, for the dance, and another one from the retailer that she’s going to lend to a friend.

“I’ve learned that if you put something on Facebook it can go viral very fast,” Lexi Harris said. “And you need to stand up for what you believe in, and if you see something wrong you need to point it out.”

And she’s grateful to PromGirl and all the people who have supported her.

“She has such a good head on her shoulders,” her mother said.

This story was originally published February 5, 2016 at 2:24 PM with the headline "13-year-old Wichita girl is made a model after store employee recommended Spanx."