Instagrammer rejects 'bikini body' standards with inspiring transformation photo
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Young Woman Enjoying Sunbath On White Beach. (iStock)
Contrary to what many women’s magazines would have you believe, one body-confidence Instagrammer wants her peers to know they don’t need to kick their diet and exercise routine into overdrive to wear a bikini this summer.
“We all have bikini bodies already,” Megan Jayne Crabbe writes in an Instagram post that’s going viral.
In her May 19 post, Crabbe, who posts under the Instagram handle bodyposipanda, shares an unconventional pair of transformation photos — one from when she struggled with self-image and another from today, when she’s smiling and donning a bikini at a healthy weight.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“I used to spend every single summer starving and sweating to get the body on the left, telling myself that I was only allowed to be seen in swimwear once I'd hit that goal weight (and even once I did, it still wasn't enough),” Crabbe writes. “Not once did I ever hear the message that you don't have to shrink your body to deserve a summer in the sunshine.”
'I'M HUMAN': BLOGGER GETS REAL BY SHARING PHOTO OF ARM CELLULITE ONLINE
Crabbe explains she used to sit by the pool sucking in her tummy, worrying about what other people were thinking. But this year, she stopped stressing over what other people thought and instead let go.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“I laughed and played and ate and swam and wore every damn bikini I own without changing my body one bit,” she writes. “And guess what? It was so much better than all the self-hatred filled holidays that came before.
“Because the only thing I really needed to lose through all those years wasn't weight,” she continues. “It was the bulls*** idea that a bikini body is something that you have to earn, when in reality I had one all along. We all have bikini bodies already, and we all deserve a summer in the sunshine.”
WOMAN CALLS STRETCH MARKS 'GLITTER STRIPES' IN VIRAL FACEBOOK POST
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Based on the comments section of Crabbe’s post, the young woman’s message has clearly resonated with her followers. As of Tuesday morning, her post had received more than 51,000 likes.
“Thank you so much for posting this,” one commenter shared in part. “I saw this post the day before I was due to go on holiday and I was going bathing suit shopping, and I was worried about how I would look trying on bikinis and was thinking about buying a whole suit just to stop myself from feeling so self-conscious. Thanks to you and this post I bought 2 new bikinis and my vacation is going fantastically and I am having so much fun.”