Growing up, I was the obly mormon in my family. I started coming to church around the age of 7 and was baptized at the age of 9. With any aspect pf the church, I was on my own. I didnt have parents telling me what was and wasnt okay for mormon standards. It wasnt until I was 12 years old that I learned about modesty. I was actually quite upset that my sunday school teachers didnt find it important that I knew this. I had gone my whole lds life wearing tank tops and shorts above the knee.
But at the same time, I am almost grateful for not finding out sooner, because it gave me a new outlook on modesty. As I was making changes to my wardrobe to fit lds standards, I came across a question. Why do I need to do this? I went ahead and googled it and found an answer from the lds website (lds.org) It said that our bodies are temples and they should not distract or in any case not be able to contain the spirit and/or draw away from us as a person.
As my research continued I found many people saying it was to help men so they would bot be distracted.
Now wait. Slow down. It is MY responsibilty as a woman to make sure that I dont distract men?
Um no thanks! And why would it be a problem anyways? When you are too young to wear garments, you probably havent even sexually developed, therefore you should not be "distracting" to men in that way. If a young man can not control something like that, then he needs to be the one to change, it is not a girls responsibilty!!
I understand that once you wear garments you will need to cover them up with certain vlothing, and that I understand. But young girls should not feel the need to hide their shoulders and thighs in worries that they might distract boys or have God not love them as much or not see them as a good person. The church should be encouraging young girls to be confident and know that their body is nothing to be ashamed of, God created that body just for you!
I know that Heavenly Father is not shallow enough to judge a person by what they wear because that is not what they are. And I want you to understand that too.
This is not ment to offend someone, I am just expressing my opinion.