No, I am Not Pregnant

But thank you for noticing how I glow

I am 50. I am healthy and my skin reflects that.

I also have a puffy stomach. And I am definitely holding in my stomach in the photo above.

None of that defines me. I wish people would stop assuming that if a woman’s belly protrudes, she must be preggers.

I have some news. Women’s bodies are curvy. Our bodies are round and especially those of us who have birthed children (and often those of us who have not), our skin is stretched, our bellies are puffy, and there may also be excess loose skin or stretch marks around our bellies too.

And guess what? This is normal.

It’s going to take a LOT of women willing to talk about the truth of our bodies so that we can normalize what the media has distorted for all of us.

This past Mother’s Day, record numbers of women came out on social media showing their postpartum bellies, including the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, and it inspired me to talk about mine too.

The first time I was asked if I was pregnant when I was not, my children were very young and I was wearing overalls that day. I remember feeling great in them. A woman I worked with asked me when I was due. I was mortified and I tossed those overalls right in the…