Brooke Birmingham: I won’t be shamed for my weight loss’
A WOMAN who lost a staggering 77 kilograms says she was rejected from appearing in a fitness magazine because she wouldn’t hide her saggy stomach.
A WOMAN who lost a staggering 77 kilograms says she was rejected from appearing on a fitness magazine because she wouldn’t hide her stomach.
Brooke Birmingham, 28, from Illinois, has been recording her weight loss journey on Facebook via her page Brooke: Not On A Diet.
E Online reports that it took her more than four years to lose the weight she wanted and her achievement caught the attention of Shape magazine who wanted to do a story on her.
But after she sent them an ‘after’ shot of her in a bikini with noticeably saggy skin she was told to submit another picture with clothes on. Birmingham was told it was editorial policy.
However there have been many pictures in Shape where weight loss success stories have shared bikini shots.
Brooke decided to can the idea of sharing her story with the magazine.
“If I couldn’t have the picture of me in my bikini to go along with my story, then it wasn’t MY story,” she wrote on her blog. “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 said the directive to take a fully clothed picture was a freelancer’s mistake.
“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,” a spokesman for Shape tells E! News. “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. ”