QUAD CITIES, Ill. — One woman’s weight-loss story is gaining internet popularity after a reporter working for a well-known fitness magazine asked her to put a shirt on.
Brooke Birmingham, 28, has been documenting her weightloss journey for several years on a blog titled “Brooke: Not On a Diet.” Recently her story got the attention of Shape Magazine, which does a series about weight-loss achievements called “Success stories.” She was asked by a reporter to send in before and after photos and be interviewed by phone.
Birmingham sent in the photos as requested, which included an after photo of her wearing a bikini top. But the reporter later contacted her asking for a different after picture with her wearing a shirt. When Birmingham inquired about the reason for this, the woman informed her it was the magazine’s policy to include fully clothed photos.
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Birmingham documented the whole encounter on her blog, sharing her experience, the emails between her and the reporter, and her afterthoughts on the situation, with her readers. She also posted the photo to the blog which was the subject of the ordeal. She began catching the attention of several other online publications like BuzzFeed and the Huffington Post, after which Shape offered a statement saying the reporter did not work directly for them, but was instead considered freelance.
“If I couldn’t have the picture of me in my bikini to go along with my story, then it wasn’t MY story,” Birmingham’s blog post read. “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.”
CLICK HERE to read Brooke Birmingham’s full original blog post.