Yesterday I wrote a post putting a face to the people bullies refer to when they say ‘they should feel ashamed. I clicked post and suddenly the world went BOOM! A few hours later #WeAreTheThey was the 2nd most talked about topic on Twitter. People from all over were posting their photos and words of support. Men and women of all shapes and sizes embraced the hashtag and it literally made my heart want to burst with joy seeing so many people standing together against bullies.
And then, well today – WOW! The campaign has been mentioned on different radio stations thanks to some amazing bloggers for spreading the word. It has been mentioned in The Daily Mail, The Mirror, The Metro and Look Magazine. There are too many blog posts for me to even keep up with reading and we trended again today.
I am so proud of everyone who has shared photos and words of love. Who have battled the trolls who took glee from writing negativity in our hashtag and even an article where we were compared to animals being fattened to slaughter – awful.
But as much as those people fought to bring us down – they didn’t.
The truth is that there will always be bullies and there will always be people who want to bring us down. They’ll always talk about the way others look and make claims about what they deserve just because of the size of their bodies. I would love a world where these people do not exist but we’re a long way off of that. So for now, we need to stand together and create a force to be reckoned with and a support work.
The biggest power we have is showing others that they are not alone. The more people we can show that loving their body is not a sin the better and that is why the success of #WeAreTheThey has literally filled my heart with joy.
You all amaze me. Thank you x
Debz xx
Use the hashtag on any posts so I can see you all!!
Debz Louise is a plus-size blogger based in Yorkshire. Behind many nationwide campaigns such as #WeaAreTheThey & winner of Best Blogger at the UK Plus Size Awards, she talkas about life as a plus-size 40-something woman in South Yorkshire.
It's been great to see us all pull together with a sense of community spirit. Seeing so many people outside of the PS world joining is was just amazing, thanks for kicking it all off Debz xxx
Yesterday I posted my #WeAreTheThey photo and straight away some troll called me a 'fat mess' and told me not to inflict my photo on the world and other assorted insults. I've been spoken to like this all my life so I wasn't about to let some keyboard warrior worry me. However, the moral of this tale is within minutes, I was followed by lots of lovely ladies, all part of the campaign and one of them told me he got his fa confused with ho. Hot Mess. She called me pretty and stood shoulder to shoulder. All that happened yesterday was that we pulled together, stronger than ever. Ironically, I'm a size 26 and I work in the fashion industry……plus size is taking over and we're here to stay, so if you don't like it, kiss my big, round, fat, cellulite backside.
Well done Debz! Once again you came out swinging and fighting. You are my hero!