PicoBlog

Much has been written about Lori Vallow’s physical appearance over the past three years. In a way, it partially explains the widespread attention on her story because it suggested that Vallow contains a strange dichotomy: the cheerleader and the beauty queen/ the mom who now stands accused of conspiring to murder her children. This prompts endless fascination

In 2020, when East Idaho News tracked Vallow and her new husband, Chad Daybell, down in Hawaii, the woman from the headlines came to life: the dreamy blonde curls, the flip-flops, the athleisure, the annoyed look on her face. There were no children in sight.

After Vallow was arrested and extradited back to Idaho, she appeared in court in Rexburg for the first time looking vastly different than the woman on vacation: cartoonish orange-and-white-striped jail scrubs, hair in long jailhouse crimps, candy-red lipstick. It was hard not to wonder: where’d she get that lipstick from? (Some people surmised: Jolly Ranchers.)

I admit that I have always found the tabloid fascination with Vallow’s dye-job grow-out and if she wears make-up to be misogynistic and a little shallow.

But in court last week, I was struck by Vallow’s small stature. She is not a big person, and she wore chunky black boots with a heel that gave her a couple more inches.

I took particular note of her size after her attorneys unsuccessfully argued that she shouldn’t have to be in the courtroom anymore. This argument occurred outside the presence of the jury, just before a presentation of grotesque photos of Vallow’s dead children.

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