Gabrielle Reece made a super-important video with her tween daughter about body image

Volleyball star Gabrielle Reece and her tween daughter Reece Hamilton just released a video about body image on Facebook and it’s kind of a game changer.

Gabrielle starts the video off by saying that naturally, she’s 6’3″ and about 175 pounds, but after a recent knee surgery, she wasn’t able to train as hard and recently stepped on the scale to discover that she’s down to 160 pounds. For Gabrielle, this weight loss wasn’t something to celebrate. It was actually devastating to see her weight drop so drastically. As an athlete, it meant less muscle, lost strength. It represented her inability to train at the highest level. She was lighter, but she didn’t feel like her normal, powerful self.

Gabrielle’s daughter Reece was with her when this happened, and she stepped on the scale too. At this point in recounting the story, Gabrielle has Reece spin around so viewers can see how different her body is from her mom’s. Reece is shorter (which makes sense since she’s so young), but she already has a noticeably different build: she’s sturdier and more muscular.

“Reece, what did the scale say when you looked at it?” Gabrielle asks her daughter in the video.

“162,” says Reece.

“How did you feel about that?” asks her mom.

“I was glad!” Reece smiles, and you can tell she’s being genuine. This higher weight meant, for her, that she was getting stronger, and growing up.

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“We’re all different,” Gabrielle says to the camera. “My bones are actually lighter than Reece’s bones. When she becomes a full adult, most likely she’ll be heavier than me. It’ll be healthy. It’ll be great. Some of us are bigger, some of us are smaller. The point is, we give so much [thought] to the scale, when we should be giving it to, ‘How do we feel? Are we our own personal best?’ And not worry about comparing or worrying about the scale.”

Strong. Powerful. Muscular. Athletic. It’s SO refreshing to listen to women talk about their bodies in these terms, and witness how much that mindset changes their relationship to a number on the scale.

Thank you, Gabrielle and Reece, for this important reminder.