Over the years, Laura Warren, a news anchor for WRDW in Georgia, has developed a thick skin. “One time a viewer called and said she really didn’t like the way I turned my head!’ Warren tells Us Weekly exclusively. But on Monday, July 3, the 20-weeks pregnant journalist received a message that broke her.
“Yesterday was a bad work day. I checked my voicemail (hoping it was a great story tip . . .) No such luck,” Warren, 27, began in a lengthy post on her blog Bump, Baby and Breaking News. “Instead, I heard this peach of a woman on the other end.”
The irate viewer’s issue: Warren dared to wear a stretchy sheath on air!
“Please go to Target and buy some decent maternity clothes so you don’t walk around looking like you got a watermelon strapped under your too tight outfits. Target’s got a great line of maternity clothes in case you’ve never heard of such a thing,” the viewer said. “You’re getting to where you’re being disgusting on TV.”
Warren, who is expecting her first child, a baby boy, on November 19, noted in her post that pregnancy is “one of the most emotional, insecure times” in a mom’s life. “Am I gaining too much weight? Am I gaining enough weight? Is my bump too high? Is my bump too low? Are these breakouts ever going to end? Is this pregnancy making my hair dull? Why are my nail beds doing this weird thing?” she wrote. “Now, throw yourself in front of a camera that adds 20 pounds every night, find clothes that not only fit, but also don’t make you look like a whale, and cake on enough hair and makeup products twice a day to moonlight as a Las Vegas showgirl, and you understand where I’m coming from.”
Though Warren admitted the “ridiculous, negative comment” ruined her whole day, she signed off with an empowering message. “I’m . . . going to turn her negative energy into positive energy,” Warren wrote. “I’m going to say as many nice things as I can to as many people as I can, and I’m going to do it in a dress that fits these beautiful new curves with my ‘watermelon’ stomach showing.”
Warren previously suffered a devastating miscarriage at 18 weeks in October 2016. “We went in for our anatomy scan and there wasn’t a heart beat,” she adds to Us. So Warren is determined to savor every moment of her pregnancy — and that includes rocking fitted J. Crew and Calvin Klein designs.
“I had no idea how much support I would receive when I posted about the voice message,” she tells Us. “Part of the reason I wrote about what happened was to get a discussion going about how easy it is for us all to hang on and dwell on that one negative comment, instead of a whole sea of positive ones. It defies logical, but it’s human nature. I wanted this to be a reminder that your words have such power. Use them for good.”
