A shot of Rachel Hollis wearing a bikini at the beach quickly went viral on Facebook for a very surprising reason: women empowerment and self-love!
You would have thought a lot of people would bash her for wearing a bikini and flaunting her “ugly” stretch marks – the internet has that reputation! But this wonderful story shows the opposite. She was praised for her bravery and for sharing a story that inspired others to love their own bodies and accept those stretch marks as a part of themselves.
Photo credit: Facebook/Rachel Hollis
The caption also did wonders to other women’s self-esteem…
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 who’s 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! #HollisHoliday
The post soon became viral, shared by almost 60,000 netizens and liked by over 440,000 within just a week after Rachel shared it on Facebook.
One of the women empowered by the post shared her own comment; this soon became the most liked, earning over 8,000 likes.
Pregnancy and Stretch Marks
Stretch marks and flabby tummies are among the downside to pregnancy and child birth. Although there are some women who are lucky enough not to get lasting marks, most women are scarred for life.
What’s amazing about these scars is that most women, including myself and Rachel above, feel proud because these show just how blessed we are for the chance to become mothers. Even in Rachel’s post, some women commented how they would have loved getting stretch marks, if only they were lucky enough to be granted kids of their own.