‘My body is my business’: seven successful bodypositive girls

The twenty-first century brings into our lives more and more social movements that expand the concept of freedom. Freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedom of choice… What about the freedom to accept one’s body?

Back in 1996, young Connie Sobchak and Elizabeth Scott organized the Body Positive Movement, which helped overweight people to accept themselves and stop depending on public opinion. Now body positivity has turned into a full-fledged social movement. Its main principle is to love one’s body as it is and to respect the bodies of other people: of all shapes, sizes and colors.

However, it is worth distinguishing real work on yourself and numerous complexes from ordinary laziness. After all, it is much more difficult to go against the established standards of beauty and seriously love their own, in their opinion, non-ideal forms, than to finish at night leftover pizza, hiding under the cover of body positivity, and not to strive for anything.

We have prepared a selection of bodypositive girls who know for sure that it is extremely difficult to achieve success without conforming to the model parameters. And to love themselves even harder. And yet they managed to do both.

Tess Holliday

The most popular American plus-size model weighs 155 kilograms. But that didn’t stop her from getting on the cover of Cosmopolitan magazine last year. Tess has enough fans – this fact is confirmed by 1.9 million followers in her “instagram” – and also a lot of judgmental people. However, the girl has a completely sober view of her appearance and boldly declares to detractors:

“The problem is not that I am fat, and not my size, but that you are scared to see someone who is both fat and happy.

Irena Dresi

The 22-year-old model is often seen in the PrettyLittleThing brand’s ad campaigns. The posts with her photos gather a lot of positive comments, words of admiration and support. But this was not always the case. Dresi has been unable to accept her body for most of her life and suffered from an eating disorder based on insecurity. Now Irena is happy to be able to help other women love themselves through her work, because she knows “what a lot of big girls go through”.

Celeste Barber

Most people have probably seen this girl’s hilarious parodies of glamorous celebrity photos at least once. Being a comedian, Celeste wins the hearts of fans not only with her humor, but also with her sincere cheerfulness. Shooting for Tom Ford, solo comedy tours, photo on the cover of InStyle magazine – all this she achieved solely due to the fact that one day she decided not to strive to be 90-60-90, but to show the world her real self.

Demi Lovato

The American actress and singer has recovered a lot recently, having decided to give up drugs. Such a correct act led to a psychological consequence – the fear of showing up in front of the public far “not in perfect” form. And only two days ago Demi published a photo of herself in a swimsuit, which clearly shows excess weight and cellulite.

I want this new chapter in my life to be about who I really am, instead of trying to conform to other people’s standards. So here I am, unashamed, unafraid and proud of my body,” Lovato wrote under the photo.

Sparkle Lawrence

The British photo model does not recognize the term plus-size and refuses to retouch photos in favor of naturalness. At the beginning of the modeling career Iskra tried to please employers, exhausting herself with rigid diets and intensive training in the gym. Now the girl does not stop actively engaged in sports, but from diets long ago gave up, accepting her body. That’s when she came to her real success. Lawrence is starring in advertising brands Aerie and American Eagle Outfitters, and is also the editor of the site Runway Riot – a portal about fashion and bodypositive.

Ashley Graham

The girl about whom the whole modeling world is talking, in childhood was a very complex child. According to Ashley, even her own father criticized her for her appearance, not to mention her peers. But now Graham is clearly not ashamed of her body.

Sometimes I think I’m the fattest woman in the world. Then I go to the mirror and tell myself I’m brave and incredibly beautiful. I say the same thing to my thighs and cellulite,” Ashley says.

Lena Dunham

Lina is actively involved in the promotion of bodypositive. In 2015, the girl, together with her friend Jennifer Conner, created an online publication Lenny Letter, where women can discuss the problems of feminism. In addition, Dunham is an actress, screenwriter, director, director, producer, author of books and for six years in a row has taken many awards at prestigious television awards. And her series “Girls” for HBO is gaining very high ratings.