A student at Portland State University decided to dump her boyfriend after he complained about her “beer gut” in a series of text messages — but now she says she sees the whole experience as a "positive thing."

"My goal has been to turn this into a positive thing and empower everyone to feel good about themselves and stand up for themselves," says Shelby Johnson, in a statement to Fox News. "It took me a long time to get where I am with my self esteem and I want every woman out there to know they can get there too! Regardless of the men who say otherwise."

Johnson, 23, had been dating her now-ex-boyfriend for a few months before he expressed his concerns about her supposed beer belly, prompting her to share the troubling exchange on social media in late March.

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“You’re definitely getting a beer gut babe,” wrote the boyfriend in one of his texts, after explaining to Johnson that she allegedly didn’t look the same as she did in the Instagram pics he saw “leading up to meeting [her].”

Johnson, who wrote on Twitter that she was “feeling hurt” by her boyfriend’s words, later took to Twitter to ask followers if she was “overreacting,” but many commenters assured her she was not.

Johnson also confirmed to followers that she was the same weight — 120 pounds — when she met her boyfriend, and that she had actually struggled to gain weight since she was in high school.

"I was 80-90 and my doctors never figured out why I couldn’t keep on weight. At 20, I started gaining. When I did, I never felt happier and more healthy," she wrote.



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Johnson returned to Twitter the following day to tell followers that she planned on dumping the boyfriend, or as she put it, “dropping a hefty 180 pounds.”

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Soon afterward, Johnson confirmed she was newly single — and that her ex felt like a jerk for being called out online.

“I want to update you guys that we are broken up. He was really unhappy and felt like s---, especially after knowing my tweet went viral,” wrote Johnson. “He has told me he’ll use this as a learning experience to be a better person.

"And here I am, single and free.”