Last Friday, a woman named Rachel Taylor was shopping at Old Navy when she overheard an interaction between a mother and her daughter.
Taylor recounted the incident on Facebook.
Today I was shopping in Old Navy, standing in between a teenage girl and her mom. The girl picked up a plus-size tank top, showed it to her mom and said, "Look! Me and So-and-so can fit in this tank top!" Her mom laughed and said, "Yeah, you could! That thing is huge!"
Since she is plus-size herself, Taylor wrote that the conversation made her feel awful.
She said she left the store and began to cry:
I couldn't help it; I started crying. I guess the girl and her mom walked away. I have no idea. My husband walked me out of the store to the car. I sat in the car crying for a long time but eventually went back inside to finish my shopping.
But instead of letting the words affect her, Taylor decided to do something awesome. She tried the tank top on, and it looked great. "I ended up buying that tank top because, it turns out, I look fierce in it," she wrote.
After she bought the shirt, she posted a selfie of herself wearing it to her Facebook page and to Old Navy's Facebook page. The two posts combined received over 150,000 likes, although Taylor later set her personal post to private.
Some people praised Taylor for her post.
But others criticized her as being sensitive.
Taylor responded to her critics, saying that she just wanted to compliment Old Navy for offering plus-size options:
{P}osting a photo on social media is NOT an invitation to criticize, ridicule, or judge someone. Calling me a crybaby, telling me to save my shopping money for therapy, telling me to "do something" about my weight... what does that accomplish other than making yourself look like a fool? Sitting behind a keyboard commenting on someone else's life doesn't make you superior; it makes you a troll.
She wrote in her original Facebook post that she hopes her picture will make people think before they speak. "Be kind. Think about others before you speak. And if someone hurts you, you have to move on," she wrote.
BuzzFeed News has contacted Taylor for comment.
An Old Navy spokeswoman told BuzzFeed News the store is giving Taylor "a $500 gift card, lookbook, and personalized styling experience at her local store" after her post went viral.
"The retailer is proud of her actions and happy to help her with new clothes for her wardrobe," the spokeswoman said.
H/T HelloGiggles