Sarah Nicole Landry says being body shamed as a pre-teen 'changed who I was'
"When I first started wearing crop tops again, only I knew the gravity of that, because I’d been carrying it around for 20 years,"
Sarah Nicole Landry is opening up about her childhood.
The Canadian body-positivity advocate — also known as The Birds Papaya — took to Instagram to share a video detailing a body shaming experience she had when she was just 12.
The Instagram Reel begins with a stitched video by the TikTok user @laina622, where she explains that after receiving criticism on her teeth as a child, she "thought about it every day."
Landry then intervenes with a clip of her own, sharing a similar experience she had when she was in grade 7.
"When I was in the seventh grade, I had just gotten home from a family vacation," Landry detailed. "I was wearing a brand-new outfit on that first day back at school, standing at my locker, when a really popular boy comes up behind me and says, 'Oh, Sarah, it looks like you enjoyed a few too many cheeseburgers on that trip.'"
"I remember I was wearing jelly sandals, purple corduroy pants, and a crushed velvet, purple crop top with daisies on it," she said before admitting the reason she remembers the outfit so vividly is because the comment stuck with her for years.
"It changed who I was," the mom-of-four shared.
Landry explained that in more recent years, one of her own children had a similar experience.
"I wept alongside them realizing this moment might play out for them over and over again," she said, adding, "I can't take that moment away from my brain either. But I can wear a crop top."
"When I first started wearing crop tops again, only I knew the gravity of that, because I’d been carrying it around for 20 years," Landry doubled down in her caption. "Since the moment my 12-year-old brain wanted to hide her body and never show it again."
"Words deeply matter," she continued. "That starts and ends with the words we remind ourselves with after the hurtful ones come."
In the comments, fans applauded Landry for sharing her story.
"Thank you so much for opening up about this story! I think so many of us have had similar experiences that we bottle up because it feels embarrassing or shameful," an Instagram user commented.
"Thank goodness there are people like you who work endlessly to change the narrative," another wrote.
"Thanks for spreading your message," a fan added.
Someone else chimed in: "I’m so thankful for empowered, brave women like you using their platform to teach other people how free life can be!"
Last month, Landry garnered even more praise after sharing a video showing off her "end-of-the-day body."
"It's been two years since my fourth pregnancy," the influencer wrote in the on-screen text. "And this is what my body looks like at the end of the day.
I share this not to say we all experience the same end-of-day, but to say, this is my end-of-day, and maybe it's yours too," the 39-year-old penned.
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