When a Forgotten Seed Blooms in a Beautiful and Unexpected Way

Growing up, I absolutely adored fashion magazines. I waited eagerly for them to arrive each month, pored over the outfits, and saved the ads and articles that inspired me. Of all the details I took in, one photo especially stuck with me.

It was part of a fashion spread featuring a tall, curvy girl next door in jeans and a chambray shirt, barefoot, outside, and looking like she was ready to host a picnic in her yard. What stuck with me most was that she had a fuller figure than I was used to seeing in magazines and the bottom few buttons of her shirt were undone, exposing a cute little triangle of stomach. I was stunned! And in awe… It was rare enough to see girls in magazines that weren’t super slim, but then to show her stomach so nonchalantly, and to stand there smiling like it was just an average afternoon kinda blew my mind.

I don’t recall anyone ever officially telling me what I could or couldn’t wear, but somewhere along the way, I got an unwritten memo that my bigger body was not to be seen any more than it had to be – especially in a confident, flirty, let’s-just-leave-a-few-buttons-undone kinda way. This was something I definitely wanted in on, but I didn’t have the gumption it would require. So I did what I could: I tore out the page and planted a seed of hope for my future.

Flash forward a few decades and I’d just received a cardigan I ordered online. I buttoned a couple buttons as I tried it on, but it would be really snug if I closed it entirely. I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror, and what would normally have been a moment of disappointment as my new clothes fit differently than I hoped became a time machine, whisking me back to the day I tore out that belly-baring photo.

I was her! And I looked good… Better than good, I looked – and most importantly, felt – sweet and sexy! My heart filled as I realized that seed I’d planted so many years before had bloomed into a curvy, confident woman who liked the idea of a body skimming new sweater with a few buttons open, and couldn’t wait to invite her sweetie to dinner and show it off!