Being a new mom is hard. One news anchor posted a selfie as proof of that, and unfortunately received some nasty, un-empathetic comments as a result. So she fired back at the trolls, and earned our applause for doing so.
This Facebook post shows a side-by-side comparison of Erin Kiernan on the job as a news anchor in Iowa, and her on the job as a new mom. Understandably, the pictures are starkly different from each other, because in the first one Kiernan probably benefited from professional makeup given the on-camera nature of her job, and in the second one, she has more important things to worry about, like taking care of a newborn.
Apparently, though, people are fixated on Kiernan’s looks in the second picture, commenting, “This doesn’t even look like the same person!”
No duh, Kiernan basically replies:
The woman on the left is well-rested, spent two hours on her hair and makeup, had a professional photographer take her picture (and Photoshop it, I’m sure), and is in the “glowing” second trimester of pregnancy.
The woman on the right got two hours of sleep (maybe), hadn’t looked in the mirror, took a selfie, did not put a filter on it and is covered with spit up and drool from a teething and very crabby baby.
In other words, motherhood changes people, and not just physically. We would do better to be sensitive to that, as Kiernan explains in the reasoning behind her post to Us Weekly: “The reason the [comment] made me so angry is that it went on to imply that I am a ‘fraud’ or somehow disingenuous because of the stark contrast between those two photos.”
Kiernan also apologizes for her angry reaction, chalking it up to sleep deprivation. It’s still understandable, though, because expecting a woman to be beautifully made up all the time, especially as a new mother, is an infuriating but all-too-real expectation.
(Via Us Weekly)
