I’m pretty confident. It took me a while to get there. I mean it’s hard to love your plus size body when it’s shoved in your face what perfect looks like… and it isn’t you. But yeah, I got to a point in my life where I thought I’m not wasting any more of my time being mean about myself and wishing my life away until I was a size 10. I was living my best life. Then I had my gorgeous baby boy and my body changed. Everything kind of sat differently. My curves seemed to change shape and place. My confidence dropped and I had to learn to accept my new body shape. Sometimes, the only way to truly embrace yourself and feel OK in your own skin is to go out of your comfort zone. It could be something s simple as wearing jeans instead of leggings or wearing a short sleeved top without a cardigan. For me, I really went outside of my comfort zone and decided to work with Yours Clothing on a great new years campaign. Body Positivity through life drawing.
First up let me give Yours Clothing MAJOR props for using plus size women with different body shapes, stretch marks and all that stuff most brands try and hide. Why? Because it’s NORMAL! Guess what? Loads of women have stretch marks for different reasons. Women have different body shapes, bigger hips, larger bellies, smaller boobs… the list goes on and on. The thing for me is helping women realize that all bodies are good bodies. You don’t have to confirm to what the media considers as beautiful (because 9 out of 10 times it isn’t real). Let me just state this in capitals. WE ARE NOT GLORIFYING OBESITY. We are not standing there eating a bucket of chicken saying hey you go get fat. No we’re not. We’re saying this is how we look and that’s OK. We deserve to be happy in our own skin and guess what. So do you.
Standing in front of a group of people in my underwear was quite a revelation. After the initial, OMYGOSHWHATAMIDOING moment, I realized that you know what? It doesn’t matter. People can look at me, judge me and have their opinion. But in the big scheme of things, if I’m comfortable, than it doesn’t matter what people thing. Plus, everyone has a different perception. EVERY single image that was created by the life drawing artists was interpreted in a different way. That means beauty isn’t idealistic. There isn’t a set formula for the perfect body. We’re human not robots.
There is NO wrong way to have a body. That is what this campaign is all about. You can love yourself regardless of your size and shape because you are worthy.
You’re allowed to take up space, feel beautiful and be confident. Believe in yourself, give yourself a break and remember that you only live once. Enjoy your life right now, take those little risks and go outside of your comfort zone. Don’t wait until your body looks different, do it now! If you start to love yourself, slowly, you’ll realise you’re beautiful the way you are.
So a huge thank you to Yours clothing for trying to build up their customer and women in general. For not hiding away from the fact plus size women exist, are beautiful and deserve to feel beautiful and excepted. I salute you. Also a big shout out to my fellow life drawing models, bloggers and babes – Laura & Kat who are absolute diamonds.
Join Yours Clothing and take the pledge. Pledge to love yourself and empower your friends and family to love themselves too.
1. Upload a photo you feel great in and hashtag #takethepledge
2. Tag five friends in your photo that are beautiful to you
3. Pass it on! #takethepledge
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