Utah Teenager Fat Shamed at Work

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LAYTON, UT (KTVX/CNN) – The community is rallying around one Utah teenager after a customer at the ice cream store where she works made fun of her weight.

Justine Elwood, 19, was scooping ice cream for a woman and her kids on a typical Monday night shift at Cold Stone Creamery when the woman fat-shamed the teenager.

“If you have too much ice cream, you’re going to look like her,” the woman told her kids, Elwood says.

Elwood says she was shocked and upset, but she’s also had to deal with comments like that her whole life.

"I was just kind of shocked because I feel like that's not something you should say in front of kids anyway, and it wasn't very nice. And I don't think it's a good thing to teach your kids, but it happens, I guess,” the teenager said.

But the fat shaming didn’t stop in the store. The woman also posted a negative review on Yelp.

"One of their female employees – Jessie? Jennifer? J something – is disgustingly obese, and each time we come in, although she does her job and is very polite, instantly makes my appetite disappear,” the review read in part.

The review has since been deleted, but Justine’s mother, Daphne Felley, took a screenshot of the post and put it on Facebook Wednesday in order to demonstrate that bullying of this sort is not OK.

"At first, I was really angry, and I wanted to find the person and say face-to-face, 'What are you thinking?'" Felley said.

Though Elwood has taken the post in stride, people in the community and on social media have been professing their support for the teen.

Customers brought balloons, roses and encouraging notes for Elwood during her shift Saturday.

“It's amazing to see people support somebody when they don't even know who she is,” Felley said.

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