Her boyfriend constantly told her she wasn’t good enough. He said she needed to change. The criticisms were never-ending. Finally, she got fed up and wrote him a letter, teaching him a lesson and grabbing headlines.
Brittaney Lynn Shane of Huntsville, Alabama, tried to be a good girlfriend. But, no matter what she did, her boyfriend was never satisfied. Bending over backward for her man became a routine ritual, but it was never enough. He eventually dumped her, leaving her devastated. That devastation turned to frustration, however, and Brittaney knew she couldn’t just let it go.
After being told that she “didn’t look good with long hair” and that her boyfriend “preferred girls with short hair,” Brittaney kept her hair cut above her shoulders at all times. When her boyfriend laughed at her and told her she looked ridiculous when she dyed her hair red, she dyed it back to blonde a week later. She stopped wearing makeup after he continuously complained she was wearing too much, even though it was just some winged eyeliner and mascara most of the time.
Brittaney’s boyfriend thought tattoos and piercings were “tacky and ugly” and even tried to take out her belly button ring every time he saw it. So, she took out her piercings and stopped getting tattoos. But, he still wasn’t happy. When he focused on her stretch marks, pointing them out every chance he got, she tried to keep them hidden. She started eating less every day after he made repeated remarks about her weight. But, it was all in vain.
“You pointed out every single flaw I had,” Brittaney wrote in her open letter, calling out her ex. “So I lost every bit of confidence I had,” she added, revealing the torment she was put through during their relationship. Then, he dumped here for a “younger, prettier girl,” someone he could mold and shape into what he wanted, Brittaney said, just like he had tried to do with her.
“For almost two years you had me convinced that you were out of my league and that I just wasn’t good enough the way I was. I did everything I could to be what you wanted. I did everything you told me to do. It still wasn’t good enough,” Brittany recalled. After the breakup, the young woman admitted that she blamed herself for everything. “You blamed me too,” Brittaney wrote.
Then, she finally saw the truth. “You weren’t out of my league. I was out of yours. I wasn’t the one who wasn’t good enough for you. You were the one who wasn’t good enough for me,” she said. “You couldn’t accept me for who I was. When I took you the way you were. Your many many many flaws and everything else that was there. The only time I ever asked you to change was when I asked you to show me you actually cared about me. Which you never did.”
Finally seeing things for what they were, Brittaney got the best revenge, and it wasn’t in the form of the open letter that she wrote, calling him out on social media for all the ways he wronged her. It was so much better than that.
Brittaney decided to be Brittaney again, choosing to do what makes her happy and embracing who she is as a person. “Here I am a few months later,” she wrote alongside a picture showing off a new do. “My hair is past my shoulders. My hair is bright red.”
Brittaney started wearing makeup again, and she even got a new tattoo. “I still have stretch marks,” she admitted, adding that she’s eating whatever she wants at a happy and healthy 135 pounds. But, most importantly, she finally got her confidence back.
“I finally see myself looking back at me when I look in the mirror. Not the girl you had created. You have your life. Your new love. Your side of our story. But you no longer have me. Not in any way, shape, or form,” Brittaney declared.
“It’s so hard for me to come out about this and admit that I became so vulnerable because of one guy. Something I always said would never happen,” Brittaney said. “It’s humiliating to even think about how low I got. But what gives me the guts to come out about this is the fact that I overcame it and I’m finally back to who I really am.”
Brittaney Lynn Shane didn’t just teach her ex a lesson with her bold and vulnerable admission. Her words serve as a reminder for others that a healthy relationship leaves you feeling better about yourself, not worse. A significant other shouldn’t break you down, leaving you feeling ugly and insecure. That kind of degradation is a toxic form of control, and it needs to be left behind.
