Mother shares powerful message on Facebook about body shaming

By Cox Media Group National Content Desk

Jan 27, 2016

An angry Kansas mother took to Facebook to voice her frustrations about comments that a Dilliard's sales employee made to her daughter.

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"Dear sales lady at Dillard's Towne East Mall," Megan Naramore Harris begins her post. "You told my daughter she needed to wear Spanx."

In the post, Harris explains a situation in which her daughter tried on a dress for a formal school-related activity at the department store.

"She told me this was not her style, but tried it on for me," Harris wrote. "I told her how grown up it made her look and she smiled and told me this made her look too old, but still, she let me take a picture."

Then, the sales associate made a rude comment.

"Right after that, you entered and told my daughter she needed to wear Spanx if she wanted to wear this dress," Harris wrote. "I told my daughter to go change. I told you that she was just fine without Spanx. You continued to argue with me. We left soon after."

The remainder of Harris' message chastises the unknown sales representative for body shaming her daughter:

"I wish I had told you how many girls suffer from poor self image and telling them they need something to make them perfect can be very damaging. Girls of all ages, shapes and sizes are perfect because that is how God made them. If they feel good in a dress, that is all that should matter. My daughter is tall, she swims, runs, dances and does yoga. She's fit. She's beautiful. She did not need you telling her that she is not perfect. I hope this is shared and gets back to you so that you should not say something like that to a girl ever again. You never know what negative or positive thoughts they are thinking about themselves."

Harris signed the letter "Sincerely, mother of a beautiful girl."

Dillard’s responded with a statement saying that part of the store’s mission is to “help people feel good about themselves by enhancing the natural beauty found in all of us,” according to Yahoo News. A company representative said sales associates are trained to provide customers with positive experiences and never to offend customers.

Dear sales lady at Dillard's Towne East Mall, This is my teenage daughter who wanted to try on dresses for an upcoming...
Posted by Megan Naramore Harris on Wednesday, January 20, 2016

After Harris' initial post gained attention, she posted a follow-up message to social media users who criticized her experience.

A few things I need to say: People have said that I should be ashamed for embarrassing my daughter. SHE IS NOT...
Posted by Megan Naramore Harris on Sunday, January 24, 2016

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Mother shares powerful message on Facebook about body shaming

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