A television anchorwoman in western Wisconsin says a man who wrote her an email criticizing her weight is a bully, and locally Newschannel 15 viewers are sounding off in support.
Jennifer Livingston responded to the email Tuesday morning during a 4-minute segment on WKBT-TV in La Crosse. She's telling young viewers not to allow bullies to define their self-worth.
Livingston didn't identify the man, who wrote that he was surprised to see her physical condition hadn't improved for years. He wrote that he hopes she doesn't consider herself a suitable example for young people, especially girls.
Livingston says she thought nothing of the email. But she's angry that some children may not know to do the same when they're criticized, or worse, bullied.
"To the person who wrote me that letter, do you think I don't know that?"
She followed up by thanking her colleagues, family, friends and the others who have come to her defense.
"I will never be able to thank you enough for your words of support and for taking a stand against this bully," she said.
"We are better than this email. We are better than the bullies that will try to take us down."
She's urging children who get picked on not to let bullies define them.
In our area, dozens of you responded on our facebook page.
"Too often people use social media to attack or criticize what others view as imperfections of others! I'm glad she responded to this hyper critical man!" Cyn Connelly wrote.
"Good for her for standing up for it, but she kinda did the same thing by abusing her tv power {and} bullying the stupid person back. So it doesn't make her any better than the guy!" Ernesto Hernandez wrote.
"It's really rude to judge people you know by their cosmetic pictures." Rodney Myles says.
Myles, an Horry county resident was one of many of you who commented on our facebook page about this story. At 7 foot, 375 pounds, he says since a young boy, he's asked about his size "probably 10-12 times a day."
He says he feels like a big person in a small world.
"They'll ask you, well how much do you weigh? And you get stared at a lot when you go into a restaurant. A lot of people will literally stop eating any they'll just look at you and gawk at you," he says.
Myles's size lead to a successful basketball career. He says that the biggest thing he hopes people take from Livingston's story and his is that "role model" is measured by your heart, not your height or waist size.
"You could be the prettiest person in the world, and you might be whoever. But everybody's got skeletons, everybody's got problems," he says.
The AP contributed to this report.
