14 DAY TRIAL // The other day, blogger Stella Boonshoft became the latest Internet “star” after posting a photo of herself in her underwear online. She’s a size 12 and her gesture was meant to show that beauty isn’t exclusive to thin women.
The pic immediately went viral, spawning a very heated debate on weight, beauty and health, which was to be expected.
Stella was the only one who did not see this coming, she says on her appearance on The Today Show, a video for which is below, embedded at the end of this article.
She only wanted to show the world (though she never imagined the world would actually see it) an image of a normal-sized woman, very much unlike what we see in magazines, billboards, ads, movies and the like.
At the same time, Stella figured that, by showing that beauty isn’t exclusive to thin girls, she would also make it clear that it’s not ok to judge someone solely by their appearance.
For an 18-year-old girl, she certainly is very mature.
“I got an outpouring of love, like pretty much instantly, but it was also extremely overwhelming because I made myself so vulnerable on the internet. It's a one-way conversation with people [online],” she says.
Besides love, Stella also received a lot of criticism and very nasty comments on her figure, because of the photo in question.
“I think that, you know, people being cruel, it doesn't really get to me because I have to remind myself I have a real life and I have real people who support me,” she says as an explanation for why she’s unfazed by all the hate.
“You know, I think people are cruel because they are uncomfortable with seeing images of someone who, you know, is not thin, and they also don't understand what the body acceptance movement is,” Stella adds.
“I wanted to give a message to the bullies. It's not to promote being unhealthy. It's not to promote anything like that. It's to take away stigma of overweight people in America because, you know, a lot of us are, and – and that's all right. It doesn't mean that you can look at someone and know what is wrong with their health,” Stella explains in the same interview.
Check it out.