After sharing a sweet anniversary post with the world, teenagers Emily Phillips and her high school sweetheart, Aidan Harrison, were harassed online for the worst reason.
Over the course of two years, Phillips had put on a "significant" amount of weight. The comments called her "too fat." Thousands of strangers urged her boyfriend to "leave her."
They Said Her Weight Gain Was “Disrespecting” Her Man
When Phillips posted a sweet "time jump" anniversary carousel for her friends and family, she had no idea the post would go viral — and the horrific backlash they would receive. Phillips innocently shared a photo from their first date titled "Day 1." Next to it, she posted a recent photo titled, "Day 884."
"I'm so happy to experience a love like ours, and know what love is," she captioned the post. In both photos it's clear the couple are very in love. They are holding each other and smiling big — but that's not what the rest of the world saw.
Instead, they saw a confident woman, comfortable in her skin at any size — and they wanted to tear her down. The comments were sexist, cruel, and endless.
Many of the comments were written by men (probably without girlfriends) writing about how unworthy of love this beautiful, young, woman was, simply because of her weight.
One Twitter user — who we can only assume is a men's rights activist — went on to write, "This is why you need to be on top of everything as a man to ensure that things such as this do not happen."
Some Twitter users speculated that perhaps Phillips was pregnant. Implying that this alone would justify her weight gain — that a woman is only exempt from having the "perfect" body, if she is with child. It's impossible as a woman, to look through the hateful comments Phillips received, and not have your blood boil.
How This Boyfriend Graciously Put an End to the “Lies”
Her TikTok had a snowball effect. Overnight, her post gained over 30k comments (and we'd advise against looking through them). While some of the comments encouraged the couple to "ignore the hate," most of the comments were devastating, calling the 18-year-old Phillips all kinds of awful names that we have chosen not to share with our readers.
While we can only imagine how many tears Phillips must have shed behind closed doors, her devoted boyfriend Harrison, put the haters in their place in the simplest way. Harrison knew if he responded to each mean comment individually, it would only add fuel to the fire. After all, these mean spirited comments are written with the express purpose of hurting the feelings of those reading it.
So instead, he posted this — and it was perfect.
"We're happy and that's all that matters. I love you sweetheart," he wrote.
Young Woman Embodied True Confidence and It’s Inspiring
Unfortunately, cyberbullying is a very real consequence of living in the digital age. Without even intending to, we have never been more accessible to thousands and thousands of people we've never even met. The good news is, we have seen the wide reach of the internet be used for good.
The bad news is, we have also seen it used to spread hate. Emily Phillips's story is the perfect example of how damaging cyber bulling can be. But thankfully, her story doesn't end there. She chose to have an ever bigger impact, by not doing this one thing.
Instead of removing her post, or turning off the comments, Phillips would not allow her haters to get the best of her. She left her post up — hateful comments and all. What happened next was even more incredible. Eventually women and men from all over chose to support this couple. They reminded her she was beautiful. They reminded her love wins.
Emily Phillips refused to hide her body in shame — and hopefully her strength inspired others to do the same.
It's easy to be a back seat driver. "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger," friends will dismissively advise. But when you're the target of hate, it takes a whole different kind of strength to withstand it.
She took a heartbreaking situation and used it to uplift others. Shockingly, Emily Phillips is paving the way for women who struggle with self-esteem issues, one hateful comment at a time.
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