The Duggar girls are all grown up and following Fleetwood Mac’s mantra to “go your own way.” In that case that means occasionally imbibing alcohol and even wearing swimwear and pants, something the Counting On stars would never have done during their 19 Kids and Counting days. Now, former TLC star Jill Duggar is explaining why she believes pants are completely acceptable women’s wear.
After the Dillard family quit TLC’s Counting On they’ve more recently created their own YouTube page that gets into their kids’ lives, Q&A’s and more. Recently, a fan asked about the skirt versus pants debate, to which Jill’s husband Derick Dillard quipped to his wife, “I think this is a question for you.” Gamely, Jill Duggar Dillard answered that some of the rules she used to follow now feel like more “optional preference” things, noting,
For me growing up, I always wore a skirt or dress or whatever, but that was something that as we were growing as a couple, kind of like the Bible says, ‘leave and cleave’ and kind of reevaluating things too. Definitely was not like a reactionary thing. I think some people might think it was a reactionary thing or whatever. Definitely not. It was very much just like something that we were just reevaluating. And for me, I felt like I could be modest and wear pants.
Jill Duggar was also asked about famously cutting her hair (it’s still long), but said she ultimately chopped some of it off because it was “so heavy” and was giving her “headaches.” She also mentioned she’s a person who hates “confrontation,” so doing things like wearing pants and getting a nose ring didn’t feel like real options to her until Derick Dillard encouraged her to branch out and live her own life.
I think because of the journey that we’d already been on as a couple, that like I was more comfortable with decisions that we make as a family. Basically having healthy boundaries and everything. Being OK sometimes with other people not being OK is like a hard thing, but as long as we knew the decisions were not wrong, they could be ones that other people might not make for themselves.
Jill and Derick are fairly casual dressers as a family. They wear lots of denim and cotton fabrics, and even the dresses Jill sports are definitely of the comfortable variety. Still, though it’s becoming more common to see Jill in pants and jeans, fashion statements like ripped knees are still a far cry from the skirts of yesteryear that used to fall past her knees.
Jilly Duggar isn’t the only Duggar daughter who is choosing to wear pants these days. Jill's sister Jessa Duggar Seewald has also been posting footage to YouTube about DIY projects and more. In some of that footage she too has been wearing pants, a choice that never would have happened in the past. While Jill credits leaving Counting On for giving her the freedom to wear pants, Jessa is still on Counting On and feels pants are OK, at least during certain moments and activities.
Other Duggars have been seen wearing pants more recently, too. Even the grandaughters are wearing pants, now, so this may be one former Duggar "rule" that is finally going by the wayside. Counting On has been airing Season 11 through the summer, but we'll keep you updated if TLC starts talking Season 12.
