Brooke Birmingham, a woman who managed to shed more than 170 pounds, was approached by Shape magazine who wanted to share her inspirational story.
Brooke had been chronicling her story in a blog entitled Brooke: Not On A Diet for over four and a half years.
However, when Brooke agreed to do the interview and sent on a photo of her in a bikini, she was told by the freelance writer working on the story that the image had been rejected and she would need to provide another.
According to Brooke’s story, she was told to submit a different photo in a t-shirt as part of the policy of the magazine.
However, when Brooke checked the other inspiration stories, there were picture of other women in their bikinis for their after photos.
Brooke commented in her blog with the Huffington Post that she couldn’t agree to that: “I spent MANY years hating and hiding a body I was ashamed of because it wasn’t society’s ideal of beautiful. Being asked to send a photo of myself with a shirt on made me feel like I again should be ashamed of my body. That since I have the loose skin, I shouldn’t be in a bikini.”
“If I couldn’t have the picture of me in my bikini to go along with my story, then it wasn’t MY story. The story I wanted to tell and shout out to the world, not their ideal story. So, if I couldn’t tell it my way, then they weren’t going to be able to tell it at all.”
Shape magazine have since commented that the conversation was a mix-up between the writer and Brooke: “This is a result of a misunderstanding with a freelance writer. This does not represent Shape’s editorial values and the comments made about Shape’s ‘editorial policy’ are absolutely untrue. Shape prides itself on empowering and celebrating women like Brooke, and any indication that we would not run the piece with the photo provided was wrong, as we would have been proud to share her inspirational story.”
