The Most Captivating, Inspiring Real-Life Stories of 2017

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The Most Captivating, Inspiring Real-Life Stories of 2017

Us Weekly rounded up some of the most inspiring and captivating real-life stories that went viral this year. Read about how people changed lives, defied odds or gave the world some reminders of love and kindness that we all needed to hear.

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The Most Captivating, Inspiring Real-Life Stories of 2017

Us Weekly rounded up some of the most inspiring and captivating real-life stories that went viral this year. Read about how people changed lives, defied odds or gave the world some reminders of love and kindness that we all needed to hear.

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A Mom Helped Others Love Their Post-Baby Bodies

Before Courtney Baird welcomed her daughter Everly in 2015, she expected that after giving birth, her bump would deflate like a balloon. “I thought, ‘No more belly! I’ll be able to see my feet again and finally have people stop asking when I’ll pop!” the 28-year-old told Us Weekly in November. But when Baird looked in the mirror for the first time after delivering, she saw a stranger who looked about six months pregnant.

“I think on social media platforms, often times it is pictures shared solely of women who ‘bounced back’ immediately,” Baird told Us —  which is why the mom shared a realistic side-by-side Instagram photo just one week after delivering her son Forden.

Her empowering post received more than 15,000 likes and hundreds of comments from grateful mothers everywhere. As one woman wrote: “Thank you for sharing real life!”

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A Woman Clapped Back at a Man Who Tried to Body-Shame Her

Lesego Legobane a.k.a. “ThickLeeyonce” knows she’s beautiful. That’s why the South African blogger didn’t let it faze her when a cyberbully used her photo in a body-shaming meme. 

The image — posted by a Twitter user named Layton Mokgerepi on September 17 — featured a picture of the plus-size model posing in a bathing suit next to a traditionally-thin model. Mokgerepi’s caption read: “girls I like vs. girls that like me.”

The 24-year-old proceeded to shut him down in four words. “I don’t like you.”

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A Mom Wrote a Thank You Note to Her Ex

A young Florida woman’s inspiring tribute to her ex for his parenting skills captured the hearts of divorced parents everywhere in March.

“This is my ex,” Jessica Singleton began in a lengthy Facebook post that included photos of her former boyfriend, Jon Megason, and their little boy. “This right here is more valuable than gold. This is a man who doesn’t pay a dime through the state because my mom son needs new clothes, I just call him. This is a man who buys a bundle of kids’ movies on Vudu so even I can enjoy them with my son in my own home. A man who drops off the $45 box of pull-ups at my front door so I don’t have to load him up and go to the store.”

Singleton said the enormous response inspired her and Megason to keep up their good relationship. “It has definitely encouraged us to continue on and do even better,” she told Us at the time.

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A Wife Reacted to Her Husband’s Terminal Cancer Diagnosis With a Selfie

To passersby, Jennifer and Justin Baker looked like just another couple snapping a selfie. There’s a good chance someone spotted the nurse and her handsome surgeon husband cuddling on a park bench and thought: They must have it all.

But there is so much more to the photo that was taken in Baltimore, Maryland, July 20. That morning, Justin, 38, received a life-changing diagnosis: pancreatic cancer. Days later, the Fairfax, Virginia-based father of two would learn it was stage IV, inoperable and spreading aggressively. With treatments, Justin’s oncologist gave him a one-year-median survival.

Jennifer shared the photo in a Facebook post published in August. “So this is us . . . the day our next chapter really began,” the mom of Annabelle and Jamison wrote. “We were walking through the harbor and you wanted to sit for a while. I didn’t know if it was appropriate to take a picture, but knowing me I asked anyways. We had both been crying for hours but you smiled and said yes. Maybe you knew that this moment would show our love like no photo ever had before. That kind of love, the love that we have, you can’t get it just anywhere . . . It’s the kind of love that picks up when you were broken so badly before. It lights up your darkness and calms your storms.”

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A Blogger Encouraged Women to Be Kind to Themselves 

In August, parenting blogger Katey Johnson shared a photo of herself in an LBD with the caption, “This is me in a dress I have no business wearing.” The mother of two explained her reason for making the picture public: she wanted to empower other women to feel confident int their own skin.

“I bought the dress for a trip with my husband and I took in July. When I tried it on I knew the dress wasn’t made for my 5-foot-2, 160 pound body, but I felt great it it. I don’t know why. I just did. I’m not down to wear form-fitting clothes. At all. But I wanted it, so I bought it. And I was proud of myself for it,” she wrote on Facebook. 

In her post, Johnson, a former Us Weekly staffer noted that she has battled her weight her entire life. “After 40 years of telling myself I have no business wearing things I want to wear, I’ve decided to change the subject. I’ve decided to start being kind to myself.”

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  A Heartbroken Father Denounced His White Nationalist Son 

Peter Tefft who participated in the violent white supremacy rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, was condemned by his family in August. In a letter published in a local newspaper, Peter’s father, Pearce Tefft blasted his son’s “vile, hateful and racist rhetoric and action.”

The disgusted dad explained that Peter’s actions went against everything he had been taught. “We do not known specifically where he learned these beliefs. he did not learn them at home,” wrote Pearce. “I have shared my home and hearth with friends and acquaintances of every race, gender and creed. I have taught all of my children that all men and women are created equal. That we must love each other all the same.”