If you were anywhere near winter storm Stella last week, chances are that you spent your day curled up inside for as long as possible (just as we did). But blogger Leah Stanley decided to brave the snowstorm — in a bikini, no less — to send a relatable message about body-positivity.
"See that weird thigh gap?" she wrote in her caption. "Yup, turns out we all have one, took #stormstella to find mine so #thankyoustella, for helping me find my TRUE thigh gap, without an hour of posing and arching and without crying and starving for carbs due to lack of them."
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Instead of obsessing over that thigh gap, she wrote, she embraced it — much like how she embraced the blizzard.
"I just put this bikini on and faced the storm, much like when I start to feel down," she wrote. "I don't cower back and let my crazy thoughts take over, I face them. I think about why and what I can do to change it! I sure AF can't can't change the storm, but I sure can embrace it, like I do this bikini!"
The next day, she posted another photo of herself in the storm, explaining that she wanted to share the photos to take a stand against rigid body standards.
"I love posting these types of photos, bikinis/ lingerie it's such an uproar," she wrote. "A fat girl unapologetically being herself with no shame in her sexy AF bikini game."
"No matter what my end game is, your judgments and fat/body shaming says so much more about you and your insecurities," she continued. "We need to stand together, over power the bullies and haters with everything that makes them cringe... Society needs to recheck their body standards, because HELLO we are all beautiful in our own ways!"
Stanley has some amazing resolve (and resistance to the cold, apparently), and we admire her message — you may not always be able to change the way society views your body, but you can embrace it yourself.