by Rachelle de Bretagne

Created on: April 09, 2007   Last Updated: April 11, 2007

There really is a reason why women buy shoes that hurt their feet, and it's pretty much summed up in one word:

Vanity.

We have all done it at some stage in our lives. We want to get away from the frumpy look, change our style, change the way that people perceive us and through the different stages of being a young woman to our late thirties (although this is a generalization), a woman is trying to look her best.

Teens

Teens are still discovering their own tastes, as balanced against the tastes of their friends. They compare everything, but it's not because they are jealous, but because they want to know that they fit in. There will always be a prettier girl, a taller girl, a slimmer girl, and teens will use role models for example of how they want to look, and don't have the experience to know that what they choose to wear needs to be right for their body, rather than what they look like.

Several examples over the years of uncomfortable styles are shoes with pointed toes which unfortunately are back in this Spring. They are not even toe shaped, though young girls will squash their feet into them because they want to be up date and trendy. Others that followed similar trends are different sizes of heels, wedges that were so high that a human loses their sense of where the ground is. During the teen years, we don't care if the shoes hurt. We don't care if our toes get squashed of the straps of our shoes leave blisters. We just want to look nice.

Twenties

Young women off on a search for a career will power dress. Here although the styles of clothing vary considerably, shoes are an issue. How can you power dress and not wear the shoes expected of you, even though they hurt. Here, a woman begins to explore her body, and if her legs are short will try higher heels to give the impression of stature or simply longer legs. It's also a sexy thing to look long legged, and women of this age will go to lengths to look right.

On the other side of the coin, you have young moms, who sacrifice comfort because they have other priorities for their money. So what if the shoes hurt ? The kids need new clothes for school, and feeding. Somehow, shoes become unimportant and cheaper because of needs. Those cheap shoes from the high street may have been tempting, but these women don't have the resources to be flippant about changing style on a whim and will suffer silently.

Thirties upwards.

In the thirties, women become weight conscious, and look at their age, their lifestyle as a guide to keeping

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