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I have small feet. For much of my childhood, I had average-sized feet, but somewhere along the line, they just stopped growing. It probably has a lot to do with my relatively short stature (I stand five foot, two inches tall), but that doesn't stop my husband from making the occasional foot binding comment. As I've grown older, my small feet have proven both a constant struggle and a surprising advantage when shopping for shoes.

I wear a size five and a half shoe. Sometimes I can manage an especially wide five or certain styles of six, but the sixes I can wear are really few and far between. Which can be a problem when some department stores don't stock women's shoes below a size six. And even in stores that have pity on the small-footed woman and stock five and five and a half's, the selection of shoes in those sizes is usually much smaller, so you have to constantly hope that the shoe that catches your eye is available in your size. In stores that put out all of their boxes along with the shoes on display, I've actually started to look at the boxes first and only consider what the shoe looks like once I've found a box that says five and a half.

I've considered turning to catalogs and online shoe stores, but I really feel the need to try shoes on before I buy them. No matter how good the return policies of a store, I'm just not ready for that kind of hassle. However, mail order is certainly a viable option and I would do it if I were on the lookout for something very specific

But the saving grace of my small feet comes from a little trick I learned about children's shoes. The largest kids' sizes are equal to the smallest adult sizes. You simply take the kids' shoe size and add two to it. So girls' sizes three, three and a half, four, and four and a half are the rough equivalent of women's sizes five, five and a half, six and six and a half. I say rough equivalent because I've never fit into a size three girls' shoe and I've found many more size fours that worked for me than I've ever found size sixes. But it's certainly close enough to give you a range to work with when you hit the shoe department. I've also found that boys' tennis shoes follow much the same scale, and I'll usually start with a size four when trying them on.

Now the first advantage of kids' shoes is that they are usually cheaper. I recently compared some adult and kid-sized tennis shoes, and kids' shoes are usually ten or fifteen dollars cheaper for the same brand. I've also enjoyed some of the fun styles that are available in kids' shoes. I own a pair of tennis shoes with the Powerpuff Girls on them. Now cartoon-themed shoes aren't for everyone, but you can find a little of everything for all styles in the kids' department. You're not going to find stiletto heels, but you can find some nice wedges and platforms. I prefer boys' tennis shoes to girls tennis shoes for everyday wear because I don't like all-white shoes because they get dingy too easily, and I'm much more likely to find a black or dark blue pair of tennis shoes in boys' styles. Kids' shoes aren't going to fulfill all of your needs, but they're definitely worth a try.