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Mom inspires others with swimsuit photo: 'I'm tired of being ashamed'

Kirsten Bosly panicked when she forgot her trusty cover-up at the beach, but she decided to face her fears and wear the swimsuit anyway.
/ Source: TODAY

One mom's inspiring post about what happened when she forgot her cover-up during a beach trip with her family has gone viral, and it's reminding us all to love our bodies, exactly the way they are.

Kirsten Bosly told TODAY Style she usually wears board shorts over her swimsuit, but recently she forgot them. At first, she panicked.

"I was standing on the beach, stressing out about it, and just had a moment of clarity when I realized the only person judging me in that moment was me," Bosly, of Perth, Australia, said in an email. "Nobody was paying me any attention and the only thing stopping me from just letting go and embracing myself fully was a bag full of hang-ups that I had created and chosen to carry around."

So the blogger and mom of two did something she'd never done before: She simply wore her swimsuit.

"For most of my life, I have hated my body," Bosly, 41, wrote in a viral Facebook post about the experience. "Despised it. Loathed it. Resented it. Wanted so very much for it to change; for it to be smaller, thinner... less 'fat.' I've used it and abused it. I've blamed it for a lot of things. I've been terribly ashamed of its wobbles and dimples, like somehow they are the measure of who I am."

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Mom's swimsuit photo goes viral
Australian blogger Kirsten Bosly says she's done being ashamed of her body. Courtesy of Kirsten Bosly

But that day, something changed.

"The truth is, I'm tired of being ashamed of my body; it's done nothing but support me for 41 years... So today I let go," she wrote in the post. "I let go of the hatred and resentment of this body of mine and chose to enjoy it for what it is: my body."

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She even asked her husband to take a photo of her in the swimsuit, a sleek, black one-piece, with her children.

"No cover up. No board shorts. No 'modesty' towel. No filters. Just us," she wrote. "I'm not ashamed. Really. I look at this photo and all I can see is how happy we are and that's awesome."

We wholeheartedly agree, and we're not alone! Thousands of people shared Bosly's post and many commented in solidarity, saying they, too, will make an effort to stop hiding from the camera.

"You look amazing," one woman wrote. "Tomorrow I am going to the beach with my favorite people and I will make sure I am in the photos."

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The feedback means a lot to Bosly.

"To have women email me tear-filled stories of their own battles with self-esteem and body image, for people to share a part of themselves with me simply because I shared a part of myself with them, has been overwhelming, humbling and just as life-changing for me," she said.