Kristen Chase has a few things to say about moms wearing crop tops.
When Chase's 12-year-old daughter came to her with body distress over a crop top, the 45-year-old mom of four gave her the talk she wished she'd had as a kid.
"I told her a few things: that we are our own harshest critics, that no one is looking at her and going 'who does she think she is?' (And if they are, they need to get a life), and she doesn’t want to be the 45-year-old mom who regrets not wearing all the short-short crop top outfits because no one in her life told her all the things she was saying to her own daughter right now," Chase wrote in a a heartfelt Instagram post alongside a mirror selfie of herself wearing a crop top.
She continued, "I cried that day because oh how I wished I had felt good enough. But that’s how we break the cycle, friends. We call out the BS."
After the conversation with her daughter, Chase took her own advice and purchased a crop top and shorts.
"And I’m wearing the crap out of them because I’m 45, not dead. And I am good enough," she wrote alongside a red heart emoji. "YOU are good enough. Our kids need to know that, but so do we. Now go wear the hell out of a crop top please."
Chase revealed to TODAY Parents why it was important to be open with her daughter.
"I personally have always struggled with body image," she said. "Growing up as a ballet dancer, I went away to college and wasn't dancing for five hours a day, and sort of started my experience with subclinical eating issues. It’s just something I’ve struggled with my whole entire life."
Chase told TODAY that she had a moment of reckoning a couple years ago after committing to a strict eating plan to lose weight.
"It got to a point, where I was like 'What am I doing? Am I never going to eat cake again? What am I trying to prove?" she explained. "I can wear a size 6 pants, but I’m weighing my food. Ever since that point I’ve been trying to embrace my body and size."
"Oh how I wished I had felt good enough. But that’s how we break the cycle, friends. We call out the BS."
The 45-year-old behind the 'Cool Mom Picks' brand said that talking to her daughter felt like talking to her former pre-teen self.
"It was like I was re-parenting myself and I was talking to my 12-year-old self," Chase said. "I thought, 'I need to internalize this as well.'"
Chase said that sharing her crop top epiphany on the internet was not about fishing for compliments, but a way to empower others by releasing the negative thoughts in her head.
"When we say them out loud and allow people to respond, then we take away their power," she said. "We take away the power of those negative feelings and the negative self-talk when we speak it."
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