When Olivia White was photographed with her daughter on the beach, she looked at the picture and knew she didn’t want to put it online. The unguarded shot shows a mother and her child on the sand, which appears pleasant at first sight. However, the mother from Melbourne, Australia, had a good reason for not wanting the photograph shared outside of her family.
Despite her insecurities, the mother of two posted a picture of herself on Instagram. In the caption, she discussed how hard it is for her to accept compliments about her appearance, even though many people consider her to be beautiful.
“I didn’t post this photo while we were away because I hated how my stomach looked,” she said. “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.”
Despite her apparent beauty and success, White still has 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 her confidence and uploaded the “unflattering” photo. You can see the mom and her 22-month-old daughter, Teddy, in this image. White is a blogger who runs The House of White website.
She posted the photo to encourage other moms to feel confident.
“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 stated. “This is a beautiful moment between my daughter and me, a memory I want to treasure forever and nothing can ruin that.”
Despite her intentions, White was flooded with critical remarks. However, there were those who recognized how she was offering a message of self-confidence and appreciation.
“I wanted to remind you of something super important,” she stated. “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 American mother put White’s body issues into perspective and quickly shut down any insecurities.
“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 stated. “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.”
