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The woman who went viral after being fat-shamed while jogging is on the front cover of Women's Running

After an open letter calling out fat-shaming went viral, this woman became a cover star

Mollie Goodfellow
Thursday 17 September 2015 14:40 BST
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A month ago Lindsey Swift's letter shaming a van driver for making fun of her weight as she jogged went viral - now she's a magazine cover star.

The 26 year old from Barnsley appears on the front cover of the November issue of Women’s Running magazine

Ms Swift wrote the open letter in August and posted it on Facebook, describing how the van driver made a parody of the song ‘Big Girls (You are Beautiful)’. She went on to strongly defend her body, and rightly so, pointing out that she was indeed big and beautiful.

The post was shared and celebrated by more than 20,000 people and saw other women sharing their stories of running.

An open letter to the idiot who thought it was ok to heckle me with fat jokes on my run yesterday,Your comment was a...

Posted by Lindsey Swift on Friday, 7 August 2015

In her letter, she wrote: "Recently I made the decision to get fit as I thought it would be a fun thing to do, and good for my health. Not that I have to justify my body to you, but I have a goal to run 10k, and I will get there."

In an interview with BBC Radio 5 Live on her turn as a model for Women’s Running, she said of her body: "I should be allowed to do what I want with it, whether that's running, and if it offends anybody then they should check their priorities".

Women’s Running editor Elizabeth Hufton congratulated Swift on her post and said: "Lindsey's story and the response she's had from women around the world shows that women are tired of being judged by their shape and speed when they're out doing the sport they love.”

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