I’ve always been uncomfortable with the conversation around body positivity, and loving our bodies. Now, anyone who knows me knows that I am an advocate for respecting, caring for, and yes, loving our bodies!
But, I feel that the current way these things are talked about is not helping anybody.
I’ve seen countless women post photos of themselves that reveal some “flaw,” something that they say is how real women look, and that is photoshopped out on so many photos that we see.
Girls are told that “everyone has cellulite,” “everyone has stretch marks.”
I have to say that I didn’t know anyone had things like that until I got an Instagram account two years ago. I literally had to google cellulite!
The thing is, no, not all women have stretch marks. Some do, some don’t. The same thing goes for every other inch of our bodies, we don’t look like anyone else!
I don’t know when we, as women, decided that we need to give other women permission to… well, look like us!
I don’t look like most of the photos that say “every women looks like this.” I look more like the photos that are held up as examples of what “real” women don’t look like. I quite naturally have abs, hold no fat, have tiny waste, no stretch marks, no cellulite.
And still, I’m a “real” woman.
No matter how you look, you do not need permission from another woman to look that way. That woman does not need to say some other girl is fake and photoshopped in order to be “real.”
What it boils down to, is that we do not need to compare our bodies to another human’s body.
So, no matter how tempting it is to want to see others that look like we do, or be validated in our beauty, DON’T fall into that! Go out and use that amazing body that is full of life, and make a full life for yourself!
You won’t ever get that life from your looks.
By Rachel Trusty 