Old Navy Shopper Takes On Body Shamers With Her Photo In Plus-Size Clothes

After all of the negative media regarding body shaming, it’s nice to see that one Old Navy shopper is ready to take on body shamers with her photo in plus-sized clothes. Rachel Taylor, a 25-year-old photographer from Louisiana, shared her photo and her story on Facebook last week, and it wasn’t long before it went viral, reaching every corner of the web.

The story began when Taylor went shopping for an Independence Day tank top at her local Old Navy. As she browsed the racks of plus-size clothing, she heard a young teen and her mom make a rather unfeeling joke about a tank top designed to look like a flag. Taylor reported as follows.

“A teenage girl picked up a tank top off a rack and held it up against her and she said, ‘Look mom, me and so-and-so could both fit in this tank top. They laughed. She set the shirt down and I started crying.”

She immediately left the store and was extremely upset by the incident until her husband stepped in with some words of encouragement. He urged her to ignore the comments, return to the store, and finish her shopping.

But she wasn’t quite ready to let the incident go. Revitalized by her husbands kind words, she returned to the store, grabbed the same tank top, and took a selfie of her wearing it in the dressing room.

That night, she went onto her Facebook account and posted the picture and the entire story. She included the following caption.

“Be kind. Think about others before you speak. And if someone hurts you, you have to move on. I ended up buying the tank top because, it turns out, I look fierce in it.”

This Old Navy shopper’s message to body shamers around the world went viral in minutes, and by Wednesday, it had more than a quarter million likes. The story stands as a lesson-learned for many people.

The Twitter community weighed in, as well.

“I can only speak for myself, and I’m applauding someone who took something negative and turned it positive”. – @ejdamico

“I am proud of you. One more example of prejudice gone awry…” – @AnitaBalch

“Thank you for showing us what REAL women look like and are all about!!!” – Dezi D.

On the flip side, her story received a significant amount of negative feedback. Many of the Twitter community believe that her story has nothing to do with body shaming at all, and that her story of plus-size clothes is a cover up for overeating.

“Can we stop using the category “plus size” and call something for what it is? She is fat, plain and simple.” – @NotSaad20

“Yeah, she’s getting alot of attention…for nothing. Her accomplishment?:Over-Eating!!! No self-control.” – @TheOtherCoulter

“Funny, people use to say all sorts of things about me, I ignored & didn’t NEED praise. #pityparty” – @HerpToTheDerp

As you can see, this story was met with mixed feedback, and it looks like it may have incited even more insults to go with it.

Still, her message is powerful. It’s a reminder to everyone that just because someone makes poor lifestyle choices or can’t manage their weight, doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be rude. For this Old Navy shopper, the photo of herself in plus-size clothes is exactly what she needed to regain her confidence and get over the “body shaming” hump.

[Image via In Style]