It is amazing how far people would go to express their opinion in the most wicked ways. On a path to make a difference, Taryn Sisco 40, and Megan Ellis, 35, opened a studio called Barre East in Frederick, Maryland.
Their goal is to provide a place where clients can feel comfortable working out, without the feeling of being judged.
The women received positive publicity while promoting their business in a local paper. But in a sad, and cruel twist of fate, the two ladies found themselves to be the subject of judgement and body-shaming when they received hateful mail from a woman after seeing their picture.
IMAGE SOURCE: BARRE EAST
On their blog, the two stated, “A woman cut our article out of the Frederick News Post and proceeded to write insults all over it saying we have no place in the business of health and fitness.” The women included an image of the offending note in their post, showing the newspaper article covered in scrawled insults, with arrows pointing to both Taryn and Megan’s heads with the statements, “You are overweight” and “You are fat” written next to them.
IMAGE SOURCE: IJREVIEW
The women admitted that the comments were hurtful to digest. Taryn had battled an eating disorder in her early 20’s, and of Megan she said, “Megan is still in the middle of her fitness journey. She’s lost a lot of weight. She’s doing amazing, and she is really healthy, but it really kicks her down.”
When the story went viral, the body-shaming woman came forward and apologized to the business owners. But rather than coming back at her with any backlash, the business owners responded, “And much like she didn’t know us when passing judgement, we don’t know her as a person or her situation either.” They continued, “We will never judge her for what she did or why she did it. We forgive her and we want her to know that she has actually helped us to encourage countless women find the courage to start a new fitness journey.”
Powerful response.
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