Rebecca Petruck

Recently, a friend posted this: “I fit my fat ass into a pair of size medium pants.” It’s not the first time a thin friend has referred to her “fat ass,” and for me, as a 43-year-old woman who has struggled with her “fat ass” since she was 11, it’s triggering to hear beautiful, thin, kind friends say things like this. To be clear, I was not fat most of my life, though I’ve been on a diet or exercise plan since I hit puberty and developed boobs and an ass. But I was only offic

Today is World Suicide Prevention Day, so I wanted to share a post I wrote for a site that has since closed. Some of you will have read it already, but I think a conversation about suicide is necessarily, and sadly, an ongoing one. Since I read Brené Brown’s book about shame I Thought It Was Just Me (But It Isn’t), I have felt like the world is a brighter place. Which may sound like a contrary statement: “I’ve learned about shame, and now I’m happy!” But recognizing how shame

When I read I Thought It Was Just Me (But It Isn’t): Making the Journey from “What Will People Think?” to “I am Enough” by Brené Brown, Ph.D., LMSW, I knew I needed to tell all my friends about it. Brown researches women and shame, and after reading the book, it was like discovering a new color and suddenly seeing it everywhere in myself, family, friends, and even strangers I interacted with in the grocery store or post office! “I don’t want people to think I’m…” “I don’t wan