A woman was left in tears after glancing over to the person sitting next to her on a flight and reading the hurtful words that were being written about her. In a TikTok video, Vanessa Confessore was taken aback when she noticed the man sitting next to her on a flight was actively body-shaming her to the person that he was texting, completely unaware that she was able to read every word of it.
The incident happened back in October, and the TikTok video Confessore made about the entire debacle immediately blew up on social media. While the initial moment was heartbreaking, the response and validation she received from her followers and random strangers who stumbled across her video have overtaken the disparaging remarks she read about herself.
A woman ‘can’t stop’ crying after reading a text a fellow plane passenger wrote about her.
In Confessore’s video, she explained that after taking off for her flight, she couldn’t seem to hold back tears after reading the text the man seated next to her sent, saying he was sitting next to a “huge woman.” Confessore admitted that she felt stuck for the next two hours because she had to continue sitting beside him.
“Be kind. If you’re feeling so inclined, can you send me some love? I’ve lost 60+ lbs and have actually been feeling really good about myself,” Confessore admitted in her video.
Without hesitating, people flooded her comments section with the kindest words they could offer her. Many reassured her that just because one cruel stranger had something negative to say doesn’t mean it should define her worth at all, while others praised her for choosing to share this experience in the first place.
Considering she’s been on a rather long health journey to feel happier in her body, she shouldn’t let that derail her progress or her self-esteem. Clearly, that man is miserable and was projecting.
The woman pointed out that the man’s unpleasantness started before they even sat down.
“It was clear from the moment I made eye contact with him, he immediately was like, ‘I hope this one isn’t the one that’s coming into my aisle,” Confessore told PEOPLE in an exclusive interview. “It was a little bit of an older man, so the text on his phone was very big. I just have eyes, and I happened to look over, and it was right there in my face.”
She continued, “As soon as he sent it, he immediately sent like five blank text messages to push it off the screen, like he was very aware that this was close surroundings and it’s very possible that people can see your phones.”
Confessore explained that the entire incident happened while she was traveling from Florida to New York City, where she lives with her husband and kids. Unfortunately, it all happened after Confessore had just spent time celebrating her friend’s 40th birthday.
In the moment that it happened, she decided to take a video that she sent to her husband, who reminded her that she was “on the way home to your family who loves you.” But after posting the video to TikTok, Confessore was blown away by the response from people that she didn’t even know.
“The amount of people that came out of the woodwork to take a moment out of their day and tell me the impact that I’ve made on their lives… made the kind of raw sharing of this weird moment worth every second,” she shared, adding that she learned just how supportive it can be to share experiences like this. “Just share it. Just get out there, post it, share it because chances are that somebody else out there is going through what you’re going through too.”
Nia Tipton is a staff writer with a bachelor’s degree in creative writing and journalism who covers news and lifestyle topics that focus on psychology, relationships, and the human experience.
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