August 05, 2016

Body Image and Bathing Suits

  

Merideth Morgan shared this personal and thoughtful letter about body image. Check it out below and make sure to visit her site HERE!

Dear Little Girls,

I wanted to write you a letter to tell you that I hope you will always love your body. No matter what your body looks like, not matter your weight, no matter the amount of cellulite you have.

I learned at quite a young age that I had a big butt and didn’t realize what would come along with that years later. I was playing on the varsity soccer team in high school, when I was only in 7th and 8th grade. One day we were all goofing around on the quad when one of the seniors told me to turn around. She came up to me and put both of her hands underneath my butt and jiggled it as everyone watched. She told me I had the biggest butt in school. Everyone laughed, including myself and I gave a proud smirk once we moved on to finally talking about something else. I was even deemed “JLo” by my basketball coach. I loved it. I love my body and always have. It makes me concerned that if it was someone else in my shoes, how they would have reacted and felt. Would they have gone home crying? Would they want to lose weight?

Years later, I realized I would always have the label of “white girl with the big butt” my entire life. I am very proud of my body but never thought it would be such a thing. Sure-its mostly always positive but sometimes I used to wonder if people ever looked at my face, or better yet, would you like to have an intelligent conversation with me? It was as if I was ‘Big Butt’ and not ‘Merideth.’ I wondered if the men who constantly whistled at me on the street ever thought about how that made me feel. Its not welcomed or warranted but I’m always polite in saying thank you. Not in needing validation, but as a gentle reminder of what God has given me and for that, I am grateful.

Then, I came to a point in my life where I wasn’t going to BE sorry for how God made me. I went to great lengths of trying to get rid of my cellulite and the hours of research that went into finding the cause of it. The days of feeling like I’m inappropriate when I wear something tight but then feel the need to tie a long sleeve shirt around my waist, to “cover up” are long, long gone (now I wear things around my waist for style!).

The moral of the story:

I did this photo shoot because I had always been afraid of showing too much. This was a test for me to see how courageous I could be. I hope this inspires each and every single one of you to love your bodies, sincerely and deeply. This is me. I have rolls, and I have cellulite, anddd a little bit of a saggier chest than I’d like at my age, but its me, and I love it.

MeridethMorgan.com