body-image

I have never put up photos of myself where the largeness of my thighs, the thickness of my calves and the chunky roll of belly fat are so nakedly evident.

I wondered at the kind of world we live in now where it is perfectly okay — in fact, encouraged — for young people to police and impose their judgements, no matter how seemingly harmless or childish or jokey, on each other’s bodies.

When I do this, I almost manage to achieve a kind of ‘beauty’ that I spent so much of my youth thinking would finally make me happy.

It took me a long time to accept that I am not supposed to please anyone, all I had to do was please my body and myself: I had to let it feel happy.

“I wish everyone would see just how magnificent they really are.”

Truth #1. You have permission to enjoy your body right now.

What if beauty isn’t what we think it is? What if it’s not internal and external qualities, but it’s just something that permeates everything?

These women know what beauty is because they feel it and live it. They prove that when you feel it and live it, you look it. You ARE it.

“You need to eat more potatoes,” relatives would tease. “You’re going to be blown away in the wind.”

Can we please expand our conversations to talk about qualities beyond just what we look like? This is what these women are doing.