With just one simple vacation pic, lifestyle blogger Rachel Hollis empowered more than 17,000 women to comment with their own stories of body image (especially post childbirth), another 482,000 to "like" it, and almost 70,000 more to share it on their own pages. Along with the visual of a confident woman being able to enjoy her time at the beach sans cover-up, this mom's powerful message encouraged other mamas to flaunt their bodies with pride. She wrote:
I have stretch marks and I wear a bikini. I have a belly that's permanently flabby from carrying three giant babies and I wear a bikini. My belly button is saggy . . . (which is something I didn't even know was possible before!!) and I wear a bikini. I wear a bikini because I'm proud of this body and every mark on it. Those marks prove that I was blessed enough to carry my babies and that flabby tummy means I worked hard to lose what weight I could. I wear a bikini because the only man whose opinion matters knows what I went through to look this way. That same man says he's never seen anything sexier than my body, marks and all. They aren't scars ladies, they're stripes and you've earned them. Flaunt that body with pride!
