Mother hits back at shop assistant who 'told 13-year-old daughter to wear SPANX body control pants'

“My daughter is tall, she swims, runs, dances and does yoga. She's fit. She's beautiful."

13-year-old Lexi Harris poses in a dress at Dillard's store (Megan Naramore Harris/Facebook)

A 13-year-old has been flooded with supportive messages after a shop assistant told her she should wear body shaping underwear and then argued with her mother who told her she was wrong.

The shop assistant made the remarks when Lexi Harris was visiting a mall in Wichita, Kansas, with her mother to find a dress for her upcoming school dance.

Among the gowns that the teenager tried on was a red, floor-length dress.

Dear sales lady at Dillard's Towne East Mall, This is my teenage daughter who wanted to try on dresses for an upcoming...

Posted by Megan Naramore Harris on Wednesday, 20 January 2016

Ms Harris told BuzzFeed news that her daughter had tried on the dress and they agreed she looked “25-years-old” but her mother wanted to share the image with her family.

“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,” Ms Harris wrote in an open letter to the Dillard’s department store worker on Facebook.

“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.”

Ms Harris said she “wished” she had told the shop assistant that it is “very damaging” to tell girls they “need something to make perfect”.

“If they feel good in a dress, that is all that should matter[s].

“My daughter is tall, she swims, runs, dances and does yoga. She's fit. She's beautiful.”

Ms Harris added that she hoped the message gets back to the shop worker so she won’t do the same to another customer.

She signed off the message: “Sincerely, Mother of a beautiful girl.”

Lexi told her mother, according to BuzzFeed News: “I know that dress wasn’t for me; I just don’t know why she had to say that."

The post has since been shared over 76,000 times and liked by over 439,000 people.

Facebook users Dezert Abrams responded: “She is beautiful and that lady is part of the problem with society!”

“Lexi is indeed beautiful...just the way she is. The dress is a pretty ornament and absolutely no Spanx needed,” wrote another user Andrea Clements.

A spokesperson for Dillard’s told BuzzFeed News they are aware of the incident and have spoken to Ms Harris and Lexi.

"At Dillard’s, our mission is to help people feel good about themselves by enhancing the natural beauty found in all of us," the spokesperson said. "We train our sales associates with the goal of creating a completely positive experience with each visit. It is certainly never our intent to offend our customers."

Ms Harris said she found the response to her post "overwhelming", and thanked her Facebook friends for their support.

"So many kind words and so many inspirational girls and women and men and boys have written to us," she said.