A mother is mocked for wearing a bikini for the first time since having kids. Her revenge will make you happy.

For many of us, it’s a big deal to bare our body at the beach. Whether or not anyone is actually looking at you, it FEELS like they are.

So when mother-of five blah blah, decided to wear a bikini for the first time since having kids, she was understandably wary. What happened next was her (and every woman’s) worst nightmare.

All because her stomach looked like this:

But Jex-Blake has managed to get her revenge.

She published the above image along with an open letter to her three taunters on her Facebook page.

Her letter read:

This is an open letter to the 2 guys and 1 girl who decided to skip work today in Sherwood Park where they were building a house, but instead decided to come to Alberta Beach to relax in the sun, enjoy the water and some beers.

I’m sorry if my first attempt at sun tanning in a bikini in public in 13 years “grossed you out”. I’m sorry that my stomach isn’t flat and tight. I’m sorry that my belly is covered in stretch marks. I’m NOT sorry that my body has housed, grown, protected, birthed and nurtured FIVE fabulous, healthy, intelligent and wonderful human beings. I’m sorry if my 33 year old, 125 lb body offended you so much that you felt that pointing, laughing, and pretending to kick me.

But I’ll have you know that as I looked at your ‘perfect’ young bodies, I could only think to myself “what great and amazing feat has YOUR body done?”. I’ll also have you know that I held my head high, unflinching as you mocked me, pretending that what you said and did had no effect on me; but I cried in the car on the drive home. Thanks for ruining my day.

It’s people like you who make this world an ugly hateful place. I can’t help but feel sorry for the women who will one day bear your children and become “gross” in your eyes as their bodies change during the miraculous process of pregnancy. I can only hope that one day you’ll realize that my battle scars are something to be proud of, not ashamed of.

The selfie and the letter have since gone completely viral. They have 3,500 shares from her personal Facebook page alone, and with the help of local radio station Hot 107 Edmonton, the number of people who have read her words and viewed her selfie is estimated to have exceeded 14 million.

The image’s popularity is heartening. It’s great to see that people across the world know that very few stomachs look like those we see in magazines. That they understand that stretch marks are a completely normal part of the human body, and substantially more prevalent than media representations of women’s bodies let on.

Hopefully, all of the attention means that the three people who taunted Jex-Blake will start to understand this, too.