Would you judge this woman as being ‘too old’, ‘past it’, too much of a ‘mother’ to wear a bikini?
Should she shy away? Hide herself? Back down and stay quiet? Or should she tell the nay-sayers to be damned and stand up proud of who she is and how she looks?
Nearly 150,000 people think she is something amazing. 8000 people have cared enough to send her messages of support. And her post has only been up for 17 hours. The post by a Queensland mother and motivational speaker named Julie Cross has gone viral.
On the weekend, Julie says she was the focus of a nasty body shaming comment when she walked past a group of teenagers at the beach.
At the time what they said stunned her, but Julie walked on. A little later she decided to hold her head up high and posted an image of her (may we say smokin’) body in a bikini on Facebook, to shout out to the word that she was proud of how she looked.
Her post said:
“I thought long and hard about this post. The other day at the beach I walked past a group of young people in my bikini, and I heard a comment... 'I think she is over the bikini!'... And I faltered for a moment and then went on. So this is me walking my talk... My name is Julie Cross, I am 46 years old, I am a size 10 on a good day, a size up on other days, but I don't look at the size anymore, I just buy clothes that feel comfortable, I have child bearing hips and stretch marks on my tummy that I am proud of because I carried two beautiful big 9 pound healthy baby boys, I have cellulite from my knees up, it has been there since I was 3 and cute, I am healthy, strong, proud and happy... And you are invited to feel the same! And if I come your way and you don't like what you see then move away... And sisters, now is the time to start looking after each other!!”
Julie says she has been stunned by the response to her post. And so am I. Are we this hard on each other that this is actually an issue?
