This woman just made a *truly important* point about how we look at our bodies in old photos
We’ve all had this social media moment: You go out with your friends, you have a total blast, and then someone posts a snap of you that just makes you… cringe. You’re not happy with your hair, your smile, your outfit, your body, whatever, and so you untag the photo and proceed to feel totally miserable about your looks.
Well, friends, you’ve just experienced that body shame for the last time, because body-positivity warrior Megan Jayne Crabbe’s message about looking at our bodies in old photos is powerful — and it’s something we all need to hear.
The feminist activist — herself a “recovered anorexic [and] recovered self-loather” — shared a message on Instagram this week about how she came to realize that our bodies are never the problem, it’s how we’ve been taught to look at and think about them that’s destroying our confidence.
She writes,
"Did you ever see a picture that made you hate every part of yourself? The picture on the left did that for me. My dad took it about 3 years ago on a family day out, and as soon as I saw it I spiraled into the deepest body shame I'd ever felt. ... Now I have no idea how I ever could have seen that picture as hideous. Sure, I don't look long and slim and like I just walked off a magazine cover, photoshopped and perfect. But I'm smiling, I have my sister next to me, and my outfit is cute AF."
Here’s our favorite part:
"The problem is not your body," she says. "The problem is how you've been taught to view your body. And who knows, one day the parts that you once thought were the most hideous might become the parts you love the most (I'm looking at you, belly rolls)."
We could not love this message more! Especially after Thanksgiving, when all we hear about are the “guilt-free foods” we should be eating or ways to “burn off those holiday calories,” we’re grateful for Crabbe’s wisdom.
Megan’s Instagram account is chock-full of body-positive messages, so we really encourage you to follow her. We could all use our own personal cheerleader from time to time, and Crabbe’s a pretty incredible one.
