A woman in Hove, England, used social media to respond to a woman at a store who she said fat-shamed her.
Jessica Portelli was shopping at Matalan, a retail store, when she tried on a two-piece bikini.
A self-proclaimed "fat girl," Portelli said in a Facebook post that a woman at the store told her "girls like her" should not wear a bikini.
"I'm happy with myself and my big tummy with tiger stripes, but you could have said the same thing to the girl who finally got out there and had the courage to wear a bikini, and you (would have) killed her confidence with one stupid comment," she wrote.
The April 7 post has been shared over a thousand times.
Portelli, who is from Malta, told The Daily Mail she posts to Facebook to update her family on what she is doing. She originally sent the picture to a friend, who remarked about how good she looked, so she posted it to the site.
She said the woman made the comment when Portelli held the bikini up to look at it.
"I'd just held up the bikini so I could have a look at it before I tried it on when she said it -- she was laughing at me, too," Portelli said. "'When the woman said it to me I just responded straight away telling her, 'girls like her shouldn't be telling girls like me what they can wear.'"
"I told her that I'd prove her wrong so confronted her when I had the bikini on -- I told her I was happy in my own body and that I love the way I look," she said. "She had nothing to say to me really and I felt so powerful going back to my changing room so I took a picture. I wasn't going to let her kill my confidence."
As an added benefit, Portelli said the woman's comments got her "an awesome discount" on her bikini.
A representative for the store said, "Providing great customer service is really important to the whole Matalan team and we're thrilled that our colleague in Brighton was able to help brighten Jessica's day."
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