Mum body shamed during photo with Santa and daughter, 7, by photographer

A young mother suffering from anorexia opened up about body shaming while taking a photo with Santa and her seven-year-old daughter, April.

What should have been a very happy start to the Christmas season quickly turned into a humiliating experience for Mini Westwood, who was told by the photographer to “have the stomach”.

“I felt good at first. I left feeling trash,’ said Mrs Westwood a current affair.

“You’d think Santa pictures, a happy experience, been every other year, never had a problem, but this year it’s blown.”

Little April was excited to see Santa and tell him what she wanted for Christmas.

She wanted the day to be special and chose her mom’s outfit, choosing jeans and a crop top.

But as they sat down with Saint Nic, the photographer’s comment took all the joy out of the day and triggered traumatic memories of her illness.

“The photographer turned around and said very loudly, ‘Mom, suck your belly,’ and motioned for me to suck it.”

Although April didn’t understand what her mother had just been told, she knew that it bothered her.

Looking back at the photos, Ms Westwood said: “I look down at my stomach, I see how uncomfortable April looks, how much she’s barely holding Santa’s hand.”

Queensland mum Mini Westwood is pictured looking in the mirror after a photographer told her to “lick her guts” while taking a Christmas photo of herself and her daughter with Santa.

He froze in shock at the hurtful comment, and Santa looked disgusted.

“Santa looked at me and he looked at the photographer and he shook his head, like (as if to say) ‘you shouldn’t say that, especially while his son is here.'”

Ms. Westwood has battled an eating disorder and mental health issues since childhood.

“Being someone with anorexia, I’ve had it for years, it’s something that kind of bothered me that day,” she said.

Brisbane-based social commentator Kylie Lang said it’s never okay to comment on someone else’s body.

‘Well, I was wondering what decade we are living in. Hasn’t anyone learned about proper respectful language,’ she said.

“Often when you’re being professionally photographed, people may give you some advice, some advice, you know, sit up straight, chin up, shoulders back, that sort of thing.

“But to tell someone ‘suck your guts out,’ that comment should never have been made.”

Mini Westwood (pictured left with her daughter and Santa) froze when the photographer who took this photo made a rude comment about her body.

Ms. Westwood said that April was still upset by what had been said and kept asking what the photographer meant by the comment.

April finally googled the phrase on her iPad and said, “Mom suck it means you’re fat.”

Not wanting her daughter to get even angrier, Mrs Westwood said ‘no, suck it means it’s someone telling you that they’re not happy with themselves and they’ll annoy you about it’.

After the terrible incident, she contacted the company, called Scene to Believe, which organizes the photos of Santa Claus to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

The company sent him a humiliating apology and offered him free photos the next year.

“The situation has been investigated and the team has been spoken to and retrained in the positive ways we communicate with our families,” the statement said.

Brisbane-based social commentator Kylie Lang (pictured) said it’s never okay to comment on someone else’s body.

Ironically, Scene to Believe partners with the Butterfly Foundation, which raises awareness for eating disorders.

In a statement issued to Channel Nine, the foundation said: “This is a teachable moment – ​​words can have an impact and it is important that we continue to learn and grow together as a community.”

Mrs. Westwood said she won’t let what happened ruin her Christmas, but she has some advice that Santa’s little helper would do well to follow.

“Don’t do it again, don’t make anyone feel the way you made me feel,” he said.

The situation also reinforced what he has always taught his daughter: ‘never judge someone by how they look or what they wear.

“It’s their body, let them do it.”