Mom-to-be Andrea Grant booked a maternity photo shoot to celebrate her second pregnancy. Little did she know that she was about to cause a huge stir in the online community and fly the flag for body positivity like no other.
The reason? It goes back to a horrific childhood event. When she was only 9, Grant was in a gas explosion that nearly took her life. Instead, it left her with third-degree burns on 85 percent of her body.
Grant and her brother Kendell Campbell, two years her senior, had come home from school to their home in Jacksonville, Florida. The siblings had no idea, but inside the house, the gas stove was leaking.
Campbell flicked on a light switch and the house went up in flames. Grant was pinned under a wall, and her body was ravaged by flames.
Doctors in Gainesville, where the siblings were flown in an emergency aircraft, battled to save her burn-covered body. The little girl flatlined, yet the doctors revived her. She was sent to an ICU in Texas to recover.
The 9-year-old girl had to learn to walk again and to see herself in the mirror without crying. “I didn’t have anybody to look up to,” Grant admitted, “to say, ‘This is how you look now, but this is how you could look in 10 or 15 years.’”
Grant’s scarring ran deep. She endured skin grafts and 10 painful surgeries. But growing up, Grant slowly developed a stronger sense of self and learned to love the girl staring back at her in the mirror.
She also found someone to love and to love her in return. However, due to her numerous skin grafts, doctors feared that her skin may not stretch enough to bear a pregnancy; Grant might not be able to carry her own baby to term. However, Grant was determined to find a way.
At the age of 20, Grant gave birth to a baby girl named Jada, having successfully carried her to term. She had felt so nervous about the pregnancy that she shared very few details online. Then she became pregnant with a second child.
“You have to keep the scars soft,” she said.
The shoot “wasn’t for social media, and it wasn’t to go viral,” Grant said; her reasons for the photo shoot were personal. But the photos ended up being so beautiful, and so inspiring, that Grant realized sharing them could help her community.
She was right.
Baby Marcus was delivered at 40 weeks—a textbook pregnancy, a healthy baby boy, and a true story of triumph against adversity. The experience was all of these things. Grant was overcome, “exhausted, but happy.”
“If you are feeling low about the way you look,” the mom of two advised, “look in the mirror and find that one thing that you love about yourself.
“Build confidence around that, and once you’ve built yourself up, no one can ever bring you down.”
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