Last night was a great night.

I got some news that I had hoped to hear, more than I let myself realize.

Out of over 2,000 entrants, I was selected as one of the 100 BlogHer Voices of the Year for 2013.

My amazing editor over on In The Powder Room, Leslie Marinelli (who many of you know and love as The Bearded Iris), slyly nominated me for a post I wrote over there about my daughter, called “Her Future Fat Thighs.” 

When I wrote it, I had no idea that it would resonate with so many people on so many levels. Body image, mother-daughter relationships, parenting decisions…the comments alone on In The Powder Room blew me away.

Soon after it started picking up speed and was republished on The Huffington Post, I received some criticism across the internet from people who misunderstood me, made assumptions about me, didn’t understand where I was coming from. However, the private messages, the emails of gratitude, the comments by women who thanked me for showing them how simple it was to model good body image, the love I received, all this far outweighed any of the grief others gave me for it.

And this is why I write: because every so often, a personal story of mine will match a need for that story by someone else, and my words do good. That’s all we can hope for, right?

Come read my post by clicking on the image below, and don’t miss the Voice of the Year Keynote at BlogHer13 in Chicago Friday, July 26th. I’ll be the girl in the back, grinning from ear to ear.