Publisher issues apology after outrage over body-shaming swimsuit article

Swimsuit issues can be tough for magazines. Figuring out how to promote cute pieces for the season without making any suggestive or judgey comments about body image isn’t always easy. While some magazines manage to get it right, others aren’t so lucky and quickly learn about it the hard way: through the wrath of the Internet.

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The latest magazine to come under fire is Discovery Girls, a tween magazine targeted at young women aged 8 and up. Their latest issue features an article entitled, “What Swimsuit Best Suits You?” The article breaks swimsuits down by body type – and Twitter isn’t happy about it.

The tweets got so bad, that publisher Catherine Lee took to Facebook to write an open letter of apology.

“First, I want to thank all the parents and my amazing readers who brought this swimsuit article to my attention. As the founder of Discovery Girls magazine, and even more importantly, the mother of the first Discovery Girl in 2000, I am in total agreement with all of you regarding this article, so much so that I wanted to make this letter as public as possible.”

She then goes on to say that “any article that makes you feel bad about your body is not a good article, and should be questioned.”

“It’s still hard for me to believe that an article so contrary to our magazine’s mission could have been published on our pages. I have been a loss for words for days.”

She explains that the article was meant to showcase a curated selection of stylish bathing suits made to help girls feel confident, but how the focus on body image resulted in sending a negative message.

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“Nobody knows better than Discovery Girls how impressionable our girls are at this age and we are ALWAYS mindful of this.”

That said, she admits that they made a mistake.

“As much we like to think that something like this would never happen to us, it did. We’re not immune to making mistakes, but we are always willing to get better and learn from our mistakes.”

She then thanks readers for bringing the article to her attention and assures them that the magazine will work harder to “ensure the well-being of your daughters.”

What do you think of the magazine publisher’s apology? Do you think the article promotes a negative body image for girls? Let us know your thoughts by tweeting to @YahooStyleCA.