Jinger Duggar Explains Her Decision to Start Wearing Pants After Only Wearing Skirts and Dresses Growing Up

Jinger Duggar chose to update her wardrobe after becoming an adult. In The Hope We Hold: Finding Peace in the Promises of God, Jinger and husband Jeremy Vuolo's new book, the 27-year-old former 19 Kids and Counting star reveals why she decided to start wearing pants after not being allowed to as a child.

"My mom had 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,' (ESV) and I never really questioned it," she writes, per People, of her mom, Michelle Duggar, who shares Jinger and her 18 siblings with Jim Bob Duggar.

"Modesty was a huge topic in our house, and we believed that wearing skirts instead of pants was a central part of being modest," Jinger continues. "But I wanted to discover for myself what the Bible had to say."

Jinger writes after her 2016 wedding and relocation to Texas, she began "digging into" the Bible and its teachings. She and Jeremy now share two kids, Felicity, 2, and Evangeline, 5 months.

"Since Jeremy and I had begun studying scripture together, I had become more aware of the different beliefs and doctrines Christians held," she writes. "I realized that not everyone interpreted different passages of scripture the way I always had, and I wanted to find out why."

Amid her studies, Jinger writes that her "convictions were changing" as she "reexamined and compared" the "set of standards that I took as givens" growing up.

"[I] realized that biblical modesty is deeper and more profound than wearing skirts instead of pants," she writes. "Modesty isn't only about what you wear. It's about the position of your heart."

When Jinger "never found a passage specifically forbidding women from wearing pants," she went to her husband to ask his opinion. The topic of conversation, Jeremy writes, left him "caught off guard."

"[My goal] wasn't to tell her what to do or make the decision for her, but simply to point her back to scripture," Jeremy explains. "I saw in her a true desire to understand what the Bible said and do exactly that, just as I had since the day we met."

After finding "certainty from the Bible, my heart was free," Jinger writes, noting that she "felt no inner conflict" about her choice. Despite that, Jinger admits she "struggled" with going against her family's belief.

"I knew they deeply cared about their convictions, and I didn't want to hurt them now that I didn't share those convictions," she writes. "[I] felt emotional as I worried that my parents would think I didn't appreciate how I was raised."

Even with that fear, Jinger decided that she had to "walk in truth and follow what I knew the Bible said."

Also in The Hope We Hold, Jinger shares details how she felt after her brother, Josh Duggar's, past molestation scandal was made public.

The release of Jinger's book comes amid Josh's recent arrest, after which he pleaded not guilty to receiving and possessing material depicting the sexual abuse of children.

He was released on bail on Thursday, ahead of the July trial. If convicted, Duggar faces up to 20 years in prison and fines up to $250,000 on each count.

The Hope We Hold: Finding Peace in the Promises of God is out now.

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