Soaking up the sun in her favourite blake bikini, mum-of-two Julie Cross felt pretty darn happy as she sauntered down the beach but her joy was cruelly cut short when she overheard a group of young people sniggering.
“One of the them said: ‘I think she’s over the bikini.’ It winded me!” Julie reveals to New Idea.
“I realised if I could have a moment of weakness when being judged, someone with low self esteem might never wear a bikini again,’ admits the 46-year-old the Petrie, Queensland local. “It triggered something in me.”
That weekend, as Julie lounged by the pool in her garden, she reflected on her life and thought about all the things she had been scared of.
Losing her husband to heart problems and raising a son with autism, Julie knew she had overcome too much heartache in her life to be worrying what she looked like in a bikini.
It’s then that she decided to take a photo of herself in her bikini and post it on her facebook page to show women there was nothing to fear!
The photo quickly went viral, making headlines and reaching over 210,000 likes on facebook alone.
“I was happy it had touched so many people, but sad too,” Julie reveals.
“Why should it be so shocking that someone without a perfect body would pose in a bikini. People started messaging me saying I was brave, but the whole point is that it should be an everyday occurrence.”
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