Mom's Dressing Room Selfie Comes With a Powerful Message About Setting a Body Positive Example

The dressing room can be one of the hardest places to muster up an ounce of body positive thoughts, but this mom's post on the matter might change your mind.

While trying on bathing suits in a Target dressing room, Brittney Johnson had an epiphany.

Her young daughter was watching her try on suit after suit as she sent pictures to friends to get their opinions. That is when she noticed her little girl trying on some suits as well.

"I snapped pictures of them to send to my girlfriends and say 'yes or no?!' because girls are wired weird and that's just what we do," she wrote. "And then I snapped this one. See that sweet baby girl in the corner? With half a dress on and one of the bikini tops I had picked out? I stopped for a second to see what she would say and when she turned to the mirror, she said "Wow I just love cheetah print! I think I look beautiful! Do you think I look beautiful too?!"

It was at that moment that she was so grateful that she hadn't voiced any of the negative thoughts that had popped into her head throughout the process.

"It hit me that she only says what she hears. What she sees," she wrote. "I tell her that she is beautiful every single day. She is kind walking through the mall, because I tell her she is kind everywhere else. She is polite at the order counter because she hears me when I'm polite to strangers everywhere. She gives compliments to people she doesn't know because she loves how it feels when she hears them. And when we are in a dressing room, with swimsuits of all God forsaken things, there is a split moment when I have the power to say 'wow I have really gotten fat this year' OR 'wow I love this coral color on me!' And those are the words burned into my daughter's brain."

MORE: This Woman's 'Fat Girl' Friend Photo Says What Everyone Needs to Hear About Body Image

She concludes her post with a poignant statement.

"When it comes to manners, be an example. When it comes to kindness, be an example. And when it comes to body image, be an example. I am not a size zero. I never will be ... But this body made a whole other body. I am strong. I am able. And I am happy. I don't have to be beautiful like you, because I am beautiful like me."

She added: "I will always remind her that the girls who look the prettiest in a two piece, or a body suit, or a freaking Snuggie, are the ones who are happy. Because that's ALL that matters. And I want her to look at herself every single day and say "'Oh wow! I think I look beautiful!' because EVERY girl deserves to feel that."

Related:

Candace Cameron Bure Hopes to Instill Positive Body Image in Her Children
Watch: Powerful Body Image Video Every Woman Needs to See
New Mom Shares Inspiring Message About Post-Baby Body Image