“A friend told me, ‘You must not be trying hard enough. Do you wash your face at all?’ For years, I didn’t leave the house. He would offer to take me on dates. My answer was always the same. ‘No.’ I became obsessed.”
‘I couldn’t hide the huge bumps on my face. I felt hideous. I couldn’t even look at myself in the mirror. I genuinely HATED what I saw.’
‘What?! NO. I don’t ever want to lose this. I was suddenly very protective of it. I want it with me. Forever. Wedding day and all.’
“Weeks into knowing each other, I received the first ever ‘Goodnight, beautiful’ text from him. My heartbeat quickened. Unknowingly, I covered my shy smile with my hand. But to both of our shock, I instantly and abhorrently rejected the offer.”
‘A boy told me I shouldn’t wear shirts that show my scars. He said they are scary. I just want to be normal,’ she sobbed.’
“On a rushed morning, I threw her a tank top and asked her to get dressed. She quietly asked me for a different shirt. Oblivious and in a hurry, I said, ‘Why? You love that one. Just put it on, we gotta go.’ Tears formed in her eyes.”
‘Why the hell would you take a photo of me at that angle?,’ I said after I saw this photo in my husband’s phone. I became so self-conscious.’
“I once had a girl tell me that my dress would look better if I had some Spanx on – I had a cesarean 3 three months prior to that. I loved the way I looked in that dress.”
‘Some days I feel fantastic. That’s the part of me most people know. Then there are the days where I retreat. Where I spend hours alone. Where my thoughts get dark.’
“I panic about my children when they’re just fine. I wake up unable to fall asleep because of my own thoughts. I replay conversations that were over weeks ago.”
‘I had a panic attack before I posted it. My body has fat, it has rolls, it’s got stretch marks from before my pregnancy. But that doesn’t make it any less postpartum.’
“The first few weeks of motherhood felt very lonely. I felt so uncomfortable in my body and was searching for someone, anyone, to relate to. I saw other moms celebrating their postpartum bodies, but I could never find another plus size mother who was celebrated in the same way.”
‘I remember picking it up. I remember hitting my arm with the sharp edge repeatedly until I saw scratches, and then blood. I remember feeling better.’
“These scars are my war marks of fighting to LIVE.”
‘Thursday started off like any other day. But by bedtime, I was a mom of 3 little tired souls.’
“I was single and 27 when the tug of foster care came.”
‘I replaced self hate, with pure love’: Woman covers self-inflicted scars with ‘mama bear’ tattoo for her autistic son
“I could not stand the thought of my son asking what happened. I am now able to feel that I am worthy, I am loved, and that my purpose is to care for those I love.”
‘I was a victim, but I am a survivor’: Woman’s miraculous journey from scarring physical abuse, to severe PTSD, to ‘hope and happiness’
“15 years after my trauma, I am still learning to love my body for what it is, scars and all. It has taken a long time for me to be comfortable showing them, but they are mine and they remind me how far I have come. Your trials in life will make or break you. I was a victim, but I am a survivor.”
