After years of working in sports broadcasting, ESPN reporter Molly McGrath has learned to have a “thick skin” when it comes to comments about her body. But recently, at the end of a long night covering a football game while pregnant, she hit a breaking point from a “cruel troll tweet,” and decided to call out the body shamer.
“Last night I was on my feet for over six hours straight, in the rain, and knew that I would only get three hours of sleep because of a last second flight change. For the first time, maybe ever, I let a cruel troll tweet about the changes of my pregnant body get to me,” McGrath wrote on Instagram.
The sideline reporter said that as she nears her third trimester, “being pregnant is hard,” and filled with swollen feet, an aching back, nausea, heartburn and exhaustion. But, McGrath said, that’s because her body is working overtime right now.
“I am making a HUMAN LIFE!” she said. “The baby I’m carrying around could live outside of my body right now, and my strong ass body made that baby from scratch.”
And that’s on top of the stressors of her job.
“Completely separately, the job of a sideline reporter is also hard with the travel, prep, hustle to get information, and reality that we never get into a broadcast as much as we could have contributed.”
McGrath said that she’s amazed at what her body can do — and won’t let herself get dragged down by body shamers.
“I am proud to be a pregnant woman working full-time and I am proud that the magnitude of creating a human life has not, and will not, slow me down,” she said. “Women are freaking incredible and powerful and anyone who doesn’t see that can kiss my big achey butt.”
McGrath told Yahoo! Life that she has “pretty thick skin” but decided to speak out because “this particular comment about my pregnant body made me angry.”
“I felt that it was my responsibility to use this situation as an example and show women that they don’t have to be ashamed of their bodies, especially when they’re carrying life inside of them. It’s rare to see a pregnant woman on television, but shouldn’t television be a representation of the world we live in?” says McGrath.
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After sharing her story again on Twitter, McGrath was flooded with support from her fellow female broadcasters, many of whom shared photos of their own experiences on-air while pregnant. NHL Network host Jamie Hersch replied with a photo of herself five days before her son was born, and thanked McGrath for her “strength and for taking pride in being a #workingmama.” And Fox Sports reporter Katie Witham shared photos from late in her own pregnancy, adding, “We ALL have your back.”
McGrath told Yahoo! Life that she’s encouraged by other women and moms in her field.
“They inspire me every day and give me confidence that I, too, could have both a career and a family,” she said. “I’m just hoping that I can pay it forward and do the same for other women in the industry.”
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