The happier size--a testimonial


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Posted by HSG on February 15, 2005 at 03:03:26:

In Reply to: Re: Barbara - "Happy Size" cover girl posted by Chad on February 11, 2005 at 18:22:45:


What you say about Mrs. Brickner helping other women discover that their plus size is, indeed, a happier size, is very true.

Just the other day, we received a lovely note of thanks and a testimonial from one of our readers. Her gratitude is rightly directed at the most beautiful plus-size models in the industry, and the creative teams who present their beauty to the public. The writer's statement is so moving and heartfelt, that we are compelled to share it with the public:

Whenever I allow the constant media pressure to get to me, when I begin to feel self doubts and uncertainties, when I begin to feel that perhaps I ought to start limiting what I eat, I go to your site, and I read. I read your archives, I read about your models, and I look at their galleries, these beautiful women with my proportions (well, they are about 5 inches taller than me, ...).

Because I have done the diet thing, I was put on my first diet as a child (when I was 7), and I struggled with being sure I was awful and unlovable throughout school, until I became bulimic and risked my health. Only after having kids did I begin to see that my body was pretty cool, but still, though I could accept myself, I still felt as though I wasn't beautiful, since I wasn't thin. Then I lost weight again . . . I was thin, but I was going crazy, because I was constantly aware of what I couldn't have.

Dieting does something to your mind, and I became at risk of renewing my eating disorder. So I decided to stop. To just eat, and not count, and not weigh every day, but just to eat and be myself. So I began to gain weight, and sometimes it was ok, and sometimes it was scary, but luckily I have an amazing husband, who loves me and my curves, and says I look better now as a size 16 than I did as a size 4.

But even with such an amazing husband, it is hard to see images everywhere of how thin I am supposed to be, and not feel some insecurity. So when that strikes, I go to your site, and read the comments, and look at the models, and I begin to see that I choose what is beautiful to me, by choosing what beauty I look at. Of course thin looks normal when that is all we see on tv, in magazines, but when I make the choice to look at my old copies of Mode (I never knew of it when it was being published - I bought old issues only last year), to look at Barbara and other models, normal begins to look a little more like me, and I can look in the mirror and see beauty rather than flaws. I can put on a shoulder baring dress and like what I see. And I can look at a picture of Nicole Kidman and cringe, wondering that that look is an ideal.

So thank you, very much, for me, for my husband (who doesn't have to hear me whine about how this dress shows my tummy, but rather hears me celebrate it), for other women out there who have been told their whole lives that they don't measure up, and perhaps most importantly of all, for all the girls now growing up who can go to your site, to Torrid, and see that, you know, they are pretty darn beautiful after all.

L.H.

This writer's observation that dieting does something to your mind is all too true. Readers should take heed of this, just as they should be encouraged by her discovery of the freedom that comes with true body love. Also, the writer's observation that part of what helped her achieve this freedom was choosing what beauty she looks at is crucial. It should remind readers that they are free to be their own editors, and to select the media sources that present true, feminine beauty in genuinely positive ways.

Let us hope that, in the future, there are more such choices available to everyone.

And incidentally, the writer's husband is undoubtedly correct when he asserts that L.H. is more beautiful at a size 16 than at a size four--for that is a more beautiful size.

A more enjoyable size. A more womanly size. A sexier size.

A happier size.

Barbara at Happy-Size.de, Spring 2005:

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