It's been said that a picture is worth a thousand words. But for one overweight mom who was unhappy with the way she looked in a picture her young son took of her, the picture turned out to be worth an entire life lesson.
Last month, Bridgette White became displeased with a photo of herself that she came across while skimming through pictures on her smart phone, she wrote in her blog, Bridgette Tales. The picture shows her – on overweight woman in a black one-piece bathing suit – lying on the beach. Immediately, her eyes took in the various parts of her body she was unhappy with, all of these perceived flaws magnified in her mind.
"Self-loathing and disgust swell up and threaten to bring me to tears," Bridgette wrote on her blog to accompany the image that has now gone viral.
But Bridgette isn't alone in her reaction. Research shows that many people are unhappy with their bodies and studies show as many as 46 percent of females worry about their size. A study involving the way teen girls see themselves revealed that those who think of themselves as socially unpopular are 69 percent more likely to gain weight than those who consider themselves popular. Conversely, women with healthier body images have been shown to have heightened optimism, strong relationships, high self-esteem and perform better at work.
As it turned out for Bridgette, her son taught her a valuabe lesson about body image. "I took that of you in Tahoe," said Bridgette's son in explanation for why he snapped the "unflattering" photo. "You looked so beautiful laying there. I couldn't help it."
According to her blog, It took a while before Bridgette began to see herself the way her son does. "I don't hate my body anymore," she writes, adding, "Is it that I have more to worry about than just how I look? Or maybe it's because my kids look at me with such adoring eyes."
