Weight-Loss Bikini Pic That Went Viral

I'm not gonna lie, I did cringe a little. And yes, I feel bad for doing it. But why do you think magazines are littered with gorgeous models, or why Abercrombie & Fitch bags have lean, ripped hotties? Because we like looking at attractive and sexy beings. So it's only natural to not feel "good" when looking at saggy skin. But the more I thought about it, I realized that if I were in Brooke Birmingham's shoes, I would feel damn good and proud and want to flaunt my new body. This made me think about my own weight loss. I am still not "skinny" in the world of fitness or modeling, but when I lost 35lbs I wanted to flaunt my new look in skimpy clothing and swim suits.

Now from the get-go, I most certainly thought SHAPE magazine was in the wrong for not wanting to post her bikini picture. Because after all, her story wasn't for a diet or nutrition company to promote their products, it's for your everyday woman that reads SHAPE, you want to read and see stories like Brooke's. I am appalled at the fact that SHAPE offered her a story and then when looking for her after photo had the audacity to tell Brooke that they don't feature women in bikinis unless they are a model. WTF?? Now they are backpedaling saying the freelance editors do not represent SHAPE and follow their guidelines and that's apparently how this horrible mistake was made... 

This woman's weight loss journey is an awesome success story that should be shared. I mean she lost 172lbs for crying out loud!! That's an entire human being standing about 5'10! More women can relate to Brooke than they can some model that has probably never weighed over 100lb in her life. 

I love how Brooke stood her ground and said that if they didnt' want to show her bikini pic then she wasn't giving them approval to run her story. You go girl!! I really feel that SHAPE hurt themselves on this one... Their circulation is about 1.8 million and the readership is about 4x that! Luckily they had a change of heart and decided to go ahead and run the photo. Probably a good idea. Here's the interesting article I read: http://bit.ly/brookeweightloss

How do you think this issue will affect SHAPE in the long run?