Sometimes, a little encouragement is enough to change how someone sees themselves.

One department store employee learned that after chatting with an older woman who stopped to admire a colorful shirt.

The customer loved the pattern, but she thought bright clothes didn’t suit her anymore because of her age.

So, the employee encouraged her to try something on anyway.

A few minutes later, the woman walked out of the fitting room looking completely different.

Read on to see what happened next.

Old age does not make you less beautiful, dear customer!

I work at a mid-range department store.

It’s not so fancy that people are escorted around when they walk in, but it’s nice enough that we’re encouraged to chat with customers on the floor and make their experience personal. “Can I grab a cart for you?” “Let me know if you need another size.” “Are you shopping for a specific occasion?” That sort of thing.

I’m a social butterfly, so I adore this aspect of my job.

At this store, employees were encouraged to walk and chat with their customers.

A few days ago, an elderly woman came in. We’ll call her Barbara (not her real name). I welcomed her to the store, and she immediately started up a conversation, asking me about my day, the weather, just small talk.

We weren’t very busy, and there was another cashier in my section for support, so I stepped out from behind my register to walk with her and let her chat. Other staff members and I do this often when we can; we get a lot of elderly customers who just need somebody to talk to.

Our managers don’t mind, as it often creates repeat customers out of these people, and coworkers don’t mind because we usually have enough people on the floor to manage.

Then, a shirt happened to catch Barbara’s eyes.

As Barbara and I chatted, we started to pass a section of clothing that caught her eye. The brand is exclusive to my store, so instead of calling it by its real name, I’ll call it Cutesy. They make cute, comfortable everyday clothes. Their staple is bright colors and thinner fabrics, and we had just gotten the first batch of their spring selection in.

Barbara stopped to look at one of the shirts, and our conversation went something like this:

Barbara: “I really like the pattern on this shirt. I used to wear colors like this when I was younger.”

Me: “Oh? What changed?”

For her, it’s sad to see older women doubting themselves.

Barbara, chuckling: “Well, you’re a very pretty young girl, so maybe it will be different for you, but as I started to get older, these sorts of clothes just didn’t look good on me anymore.”

Me: “Don’t say that, Barbara! A shirt like this would look great on you. You’re still very beautiful.”

Barbara, now laughing: “Thank you, sweet girl, but it’s alright. I’ll just stick to what I normally wear. Patterns like this are made for young people like you.”

This is a personal source of heartbreak for me, but I always hate it when older people believe their age is ugly. It’s a side of unrealistic beauty standards that doesn’t get talked about often, at least where I’m at.

Older women buy wrinkle corrector, dye the white and silver out of their hair, and do everything they can to stave off evidence of their age until they give up and start to say to themselves, “I’m just old and ugly now.”

At this point, she was just trying to get the woman to try something on.

Most of my coworkers and I don’t see things that way at all. Many of our customers have aged gracefully, and Barbara had aged downright beautifully. So, I pressed the issue just a little bit.

Me: “Are you sure you don’t want to just try it on? You might be surprised. If you don’t like it, we can put it back for you and find something else.”

Barbara: “Well… Where is the fitting room?”

Me: “It’s in the corner, right there.”

And then, she mentioned a dress.

Barbara: “Since we’re already here, I guess I might as well. I really don’t know about these sleeves, though. They’ll show my big, flabby arms!”

Me: “That’s not an issue at all! But if you really aren’t comfortable with the short sleeves, Cutesy makes a few other shirts and dresses with that pattern that have longer sleeves.”

Barbara: “Oh, they’ve made a dress?”

Me: “Mm-hm! It’s hanging on the wall there. It’s shorter, falls a little past the knees, but it has three-quarter sleeves that will cover your forearms if you prefer them covered.”

Barbara was excited and wanted to try it on.

Barbara: “…tell you what. If you can find a large in that dress, I’ll try it on, just to see.”

I went over to the wall and happily retrieved a large for Barbara, who took it to the dressing room to try it on.

As she did, one of my managers was passing by and stopped to check in on me. While we were chatting about the day (slow) and store metrics (struggling but not terrible), Barbara stepped out of the fitting room in the Cutesy dress to ask what I thought.

My manager and I immediately started to gush over how nice she looked. And she really did look nice!

She looked beautiful.

The dress fit her figure perfectly, the colors brought out the warmth in her skin, and most importantly? She looked really, really happy in it. She didn’t just like the dress—she liked herself in the dress.

The most important part of an outfit is that it makes the person wearing it feel confident, and Barbara clearly felt confident in the dress. She even turned in a circle to show us the back and how the skirt flared!

She ended up buying the dress, as well as a few other floral and brightly colored blouses that she found. I was happy to help her at the register and oh so excited that she was excited about her new clothes.

It was apparent that Barbara was very appreciative.

As I was ringing her up, she asked me a question.

Barbara: “What’s your name, young lady?”

Me: “Quill, ma’am.”

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Barbara: “Well, Quill, thank you. You made me feel about forty years younger today.”

She left the customer with a few kind parting words.

Me: “I hope you know I really mean it. You still look beautiful in bright colors. You still look beautiful, regardless.”

Barbara: “I don’t know if I believe that, but maybe you’re right. I think I’ll buy a sunhat to go with that dress, and my husband and I can go on a picnic. We haven’t done that in a while.”

Me: “That sounds like fun. And the weather’s getting warm enough for it!”

We chatted about the weather a bit more and her plans for each new outfit she got. The entire interaction made my day. I hope the next time I see Barbara, she has that sunhat she wanted!

Wow! What a wholesome interaction!

Let’s check out how the folks over at Reddit feel about this whole thing.

This reader loves the story.

Here’s someone who just had something similar happen.

Yet another person who loves how it played out.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a man who is shocked to learn how little he has to do to keep his cushy remote job.

This reader even cried a little.

It’s so great to see someone treat another person this way.

A few kind words clearly meant a lot to Barbara, and they helped her see herself a little differently.

People shouldn’t feel like getting older means they have to stop wearing things they love.

Hopefully, she gets that sunhat and enjoys every second of that picnic.