19 Children and counting alum Ginger DuggarHer latest book reveals some unexpected details about the effects of her ultra-conservative upbringing.
c People Pleaser: Unburdening Imaginary Expectationswhich debuted on Tuesday, January 14, the 31-year-old revealed that she didn’t learn to swim as a child due to the limitations of her family’s modest wardrobe. (Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar raised their 19 children as followers of the Institute on Basic Life Principles, as women were expected to do wear dresses or skirts falling at least to knee length.)
“Ever since I was a little girl, I wanted to know what it felt like to push myself through the water, flapping my arms and kicking my legs to keep me afloat. But I didn’t know how,” Jinger wrote. “Here’s what I knew for sure: Long skirts weren’t made for learning to swim.”
Jinger went on to joke that “the laws of physics, gravity and buoyancy don’t work well with long skirts,” explaining that she tried swimming when she was younger — and it didn’t go well. “Another way of saying ‘long-skirted swimmer’ is ‘one who sinks,'” she added. “And since long skirts were the only swimming fashion available to me as a child, and since I had an aversion to not wanting to sink, the skill of swimming was not something I learned during that time.”
Several of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar’s 19 children have deviated from their conservative family’s rules over the years. Jim Bob and Michelle raised their children in a devout Baptist home, following strict guidelines that included dressing modestly and “courting” future spouses while accompanied on romantic outings. Since many of the census (…)
The former reality star admitted that being around “water of any kind” feels “scary” without knowing how to swim. As an adult, however, Ginger has started to get into it since welcoming daughters Felicity, 6, and Evangeline, 4, with her husband Jeremy Vuolo. (Jinger announced in October 2024 that she is pregnant with the couple’s third child.)
“I want (my children) to know how to swim. I want them to know that I can too,” Jinger wrote. “But I was still so scared, remembering the few times I’d tried as a child, the long skirt wrapping around my wobbly legs.”
At first, Jinger was “hesitant” to try again – her tendency to please people “made her afraid of failing” – but she found comfort in a friend named Rebecca, who helped her learn.
“We’re still at it, my swim lessons, taking it baby step by baby step (or maybe I should say baby lap by baby lap),” Jinger wrote.
People Pleaser isn’t the first time Jinger has discussed her experiences with modest dressing. In May 2021 Jinger opened up about choosing to break free from the rules of her upbringing.
It tells her story. Jinger Duggar grew up in the spotlight, but there were still plenty of TLC fans who didn’t know about her life — until now. The 19 Kids and Counting alum, 29, released her book Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear on Tuesday, January 31. Her memoir unpacks her ultraconservative Christian (…)
“My mother always dressed us girls in skirts and dresses, a standard that was taken from Deuteronomy 22:5, which says, ‘A woman shall not wear a man’s garment,'” she writes in her second book, The hope we hold. “Modesty was a huge theme in our house and we believed that wearing skirts instead of pants was a major part of modesty. But I wanted to find out for myself what the Bible said.”
Jinger explained that she began “digging” into the deeper meaning behind familiar passages of scripture after marrying Vuolo, 37, in 2016. She realized that modesty is not “only in what you wear” but also “in the position of your heart.” Jinger has also “never found a passage that specifically prohibits women from wearing pants.”
Last year Jinger recalled the first time he wore pants around his parents. “The first few times I came back (home), I didn’t wear pants. I wore the skirt just to honor them,” she said on the Unplanned podcast. “It’s a big deal for my family, and my heart is to not rub something in anybody’s face and say, ‘I’m doing this. I do my own thing. … It’s not to make them angry.”
People Pleaser: Unburdening Imaginary Expectations is available now.
