Body Shamed By Stranger: 'Your Clothes Are Too Small,' Mom Told

COLUMBUS, OH — At least a thousand people have validated Charli Stevens, a Columbus mom who dashed to her local grocery store Saturday morning to pick up some gift tags for the Christmas gifts she planned to wrap and encountered a complete stranger who felt obliged to comment on her outfit. It wasn’t a nice observation, either, Stevens wrote on her Facebook page.

As Stevens shopped, she noticed a woman in her 50s kept staring at her. She didn’t like it, but said nothing. Then this happened:

“I think your clothes are a little too small on you,” the stranger said.

“Excuse me?” Stevens questioned.

“Well, no offense, but you’re just a bit big to wear those type of clothes,” the other woman said.

Offense taken. “Instant tears,” Stevens wrote in a post that has been commented upon, shared and liked. “I didn’t know what to say. Usually I’m so quick to lash out at rude people and I’m never shy when it comes down to speaking my mind. But I froze. Froze and cried.”

The stranger pressed on.

“She said, ‘I’m not trying to be mean but maybe just reconsider your outfit before leaving your house from now on,’ ” Stevens wrote.

“She walked away and I just stood there at the cart with Grayson looking at me,” Stevens wrote. “I was literally crying in the middle of the Christmas aisle at Kroger. I left without buying anything and sat in my car and cried.”

Tell Us: How would you respond in this situation? Tell us in the comments below.

Stevens said she contemplated whether to comment on the encounter, but the woman’s rude comments pushed her to start typing — not to garner sympathy, she wrote, but to prod people to be more civil and respectful to one another.

“It’s no secret that I’ve gained weight throughout life,” she wrote. “I’ve birthed two kids so it’s bound to happen. Do I realize I’m overweight? Yes. Do I want to be smaller? Yes. But am I okay with the way I look? Yes!! Why would a complete stranger go out of their way to insult someone? What if I was severely depressed? Or what if I was constantly made fun of for my weight and that one comment from that stranger pushed me over the edge?

“Luckily, I’m neither of those things. But people have got to start being nice. Having common sense. Being respectful. This lady knew nothing about me.”

What the woman didn’t know was that Stevens had lost 50 pounds before giving to 5-month-old Grayson. She said her clothes were “tighter than what I would normally wear,” but noted that shouldn’t matter.

She closed her post with a plea for civility.

“You never know what someone is going through or if your one little comment, snicker, stare, whatever will be enough to break someone down or push them over the edge,” she wrote, noting that she fears for her daughter, who is growing up in a world where simple respect seems to be a fading value.

“We’ve gotta set a good example for our children,” she wrote.

See Also: Teen Hangs Herself, But Bullying Killed Her

Photo by Debora Cartagena via U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention