Jinger Duggar reveals in new book that she didn’t learn to swim as a child

19 Children and counting alum Jinger DuggarThe latest book reveals some unexpected details about the effects of her ultra-conservative upbringing.

IN People Pleaser: Liberation from the Burden of 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 in the basic principles of life, while women are expected to do so wear dresses or skirts falling at least to knee length.)

“Ever since I was a little girl, I wanted to know what it was like to push through the water, swinging my arms and kicking my feet to stay afloat. But I didn’t know how,” Jinger wrote. “What I knew for sure: Long skirts were not designed for learning to swim.

Jinger went on to joke that “the laws of physics, gravity and buoyancy don’t play well with long skirts,” explaining that she tried swimming when she was younger — and it didn’t go well. “Another way to say ‘long-skirted swimmer’ is ‘one who sinks,'” she added. “And because long skirts were the only form of swimming available to me as a child, and because I had a problem with not wanting to sink, swimming wasn’t something I acquired during that time.”

The former reality star admitted that being around “water of any kind” felt “terrifying” without knowing how to swim. As an adult, however, Jinger has been diving ever since she and her husband welcomed daughters Felicity, 6, and Evangeline, 4. Jeremy Vuolo. (Jinger he 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 when I remembered what I had tried on a few times as a child, the long skirt that wrapped around my flailing legs.

Jinger was initially “hesitant” to try again – her people-pleasing tendencies made her “terrified of failure” – but found solace in a friend named Rebekah who helped her learn.

“We’re still at it, my swim lessons, taking the baby one step at a time (or maybe I should say baby lap by lap),” Jinger wrote.

People please this isn’t the first time Jinger has discussed her experiences dressing modestly. In May 2021, Jinger opened up about deciding to break from the rules of her upbringing.

“My mom always dressed us girls in skirts and dresses, a norm taken from Deuteronomy 22:5, which says, ‘A woman shall not wear a man’s garment,'” she wrote in her second book. The hope we hold. “Modesty was a big theme in our house and we believed that wearing skirts instead of pants was a central 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 of familiar scriptures after marrying Vuol, 37, in 2016. She realized that modesty is not “just about what you wear” but also “about the position of your heart.” Jinger also “never found a passage that specifically prohibited women from wearing pants.”

Last year, Jinger revoked she wore pants around her parents for the first time. “A couple of times when I came back (home) I wasn’t wearing pants. I only wore the skirt to honor (them),” she said on the “Unplanned” podcast. “It’s a big deal for my family, and it’s not in my heart to rub anything in anyone’s face and say, ‘I’m doing it. I’m doing my own thing.” … It’s not to upset them.”

People Pleaser: Liberation from the Burden of Imaginary Expectations is now available.