Who doesn't feel awesome dressed like this?! Pigtail Pals owner Melissa Wardy, circa 1982

I realized yesterday that the women in my family have given me an incredible legacy. It is something I have always known, but not until yesterday did I really get it.  You see, I was doing a trunk show for Pigtail Pals (awesome empowering products for girls, go buy some!) at a local women’s expo. On my table I also had some postcards for the Fat Talk Free Week sponsored by Tri Delta sorority. Several women would pick it up and ask what it was about. I would explain what Fat Talk is, and why we as mothers needed to be careful what legacy we leave our daugthers.

And then they would cry.

Every single one of the women would tear up, and say, “Oh, that is beautiful,” and “Oh, thank you so much for what you do.”

I tried to give them examples of what Fat Talk is, and as I did so, I realized, I do not have one single memory of my mother, my aunts, my girl cousins, or my grandmothers ever participating in Fat Talk in front of me.

In fact, when I sit here and think back about what the women in my family did talk about, I recall topics like gardening, family heritage, hilarious stories about the men in our family, world events and politics, careers, education, books and movies, etc. But appearances? That was never the topic of conversation. If anything, I remember compliments given to each other on looking nice or wearing a color that was very flattering.

Not once did one of the women in my family berate their weight, their appearance, their beauty, their worth.

Not once. Not that I can ever remember. And that is the legacy of beauty the women in my family left for me.

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