When Olivia White was photographed with her daughter on the beach, she took one look at the image and knew that she didn’t want to share it on the internet. The candid photo depicts the 28-year-old mother and her toddler on the sand and appears innocuous at first glance. But the mother, from Melbourne, Australia, had an excellent reason why she didn’t like the picture and didn’t want it getting out to the rest of the world.
Nevertheless, the mother of two posted the picture on her Instagram page. But she used the opportunity to discuss how she is very insecure about her body despite being what many people consider a beautiful woman.
“I didn’t post this photo while we were away because I hated how my stomach looked,” she admitted. “As much as I try to be self-confident and be positive about my appearance, it’s not just a switch and one day you’re completely 110 percent okay with yourself.”
Even though White is a success and a “traditional” beauty, she still struggles with body issues like the rest of us.
“It’s a daily thing, and you have good and bad days… But you can’t stop, especially when you have little eyes watching you.”
She gathered the courage and posted the “unflattering” photo. In it, you see mom and her 22-month-old daughter, Teddy. White is a blogger known for her site the House of White.
She shared the photo because she wants other moms to feel confident in themselves.
“You just need to keep reminding yourself every day that you’re amazing no matter what anyone else or your own brain tries to trick you into thinking,” she said. “This is a beautiful moment between my daughter and me, a memory I want to treasure forever and nothing can ruin that.”
Although she thought she was doing the world of moms a serviced, White was bombarded with negative responses. But some people managed to see how she was spreading a message of self-confidence and appreciation.
“I wanted to remind you of something super important,” she said. “The other day when I shared my beach picture I was blown away by the response from other mums who empathized they had felt the same way about themselves in photos and they too had not kept or posted images because they didn’t like how they looked.
‘Some people, of course, didn’t have the nicest things to say. And some people reminded me that I’m lucky to even have those images and you know what – they are totally right.”
But one United States mother put White’s body issues into perspective.
“One of the comments I received was from a mama in the US, she had just lost her two eldest sons ages 18 and 20 in a car accident that month,” Olivia said. “She pleaded with me to not care what I ever look like in these images because she regretted that she herself had next to no photos of her with her children for this very same reason. My heart absolutely broke into a million pieces for her. My eyes began to water, and at that moment, it hit me like a ton of bricks. I know that this woman’s story is unique, but we so often complain that we aren’t in images because we are always taking them, only to get one then and pick apart how we look and not even keep it.”