Shape magazine is a magazine dedicated to helping women live better, healthier lifestyles. It features healthy food choices, workout routines, and success stories of women who turned their lives around for the sole purpose of feeling better. However, one success story is missing from this months issue: the story of Brooke Birmingham and her struggle with weight that ended miraculously with a loss of over 170 pounds.
Recently, Shape magazine found Brooke’s blog and contacted her, requesting to feature her in the magazine. A phone interview was scheduled and Brooke sent in before and after pictures. Her confidence shines through in a revealing picture of her in a bikini; the excess skin on her midsection acting as a mere addition to her beautiful transformation, and a reminder of how far she has come.
After a few days, Birmingham received an email from Shape. Part of the email read, “You look ah-mazing, of course, but they [the editors] are looking to include one [photo] with a shirt.” Brooke was offended and furious after going on the magazine’s website and seeing dozens of women in bathing suits. She responded calmly and eventually decided to decline their offer to be featured as a success story, deciding that it wasn’t worth the dishonesty.
Brooke’s story is an important one in my opinion. Shape magazine’s covers feature beautiful women with washboard abs, stick thin arms, and gaps between their thighs. Magazines like this tell us to love our bodies and to have a healthy lifestyle as opposed to losing weight. However, the images of beautiful, flawless women (thanks to photoshop), tell us that perfection, as opposed to improvement, is our ultimate goal. The media tells young women that we must weigh less than 120 pounds, be taller than 5 feet 8 inches, and possess the qualities of models like Kate Upton and fitness gurus like Jillian Michaels. The reality is that women come in all shapes in sizes. When young women are growing, their bodies become painted with freckles, acne, scars, stretch marks, and other “marks.” Women like Brooke are left with excess skin after tremendous acts of willpower and strength. The problem is not with women’s bodies, it is with the way media has told women how to look.
Young women will never feel confident about their bodies until they are shown the reality. For the most part, each and every one of us has bones sticking out, unwanted curves, stretch marks, acne, and other “unwanted” qualities. The select few of us who do not are not necessarily the lucky ones. They are often the women who starve themselves and spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on beauty products and surgeries to make them feel beautiful as according to the media. In my opinion, Brooke Birmingham is more beautiful than models and actresses because she shows young women that they can recreate the ideal beautiful, and she exemplifies bravery, commitment, and confidence.