An overweight woman in the US who posted a picture of herself in a bikini on the net received mostly supportive comments.

Stella Boonshoft, a college student in New York, spotted photographer Brandon Stanton on the street and asked him if she could take a picture of him. In return, Stanton asked her to take a picture of her and later he uploaded it on his website.

Boonshoft said she burst into tears when she first saw the positive comments on her picture. It is now also posted on her own blog.

On her blog, she says, "Most of all, this picture is for me. For the girl who hated her body so much she took extreme measures to try to change it. Who cried for hours over the fact she would never be thin. Who was teased and tormented and hurt just for being who she was. I'm so over that. This is my body. Deal with it!"

Since it was posted on Thursday, 455,000 people have liked the picture and it has been shared 20,000 times.