I have a good friend, who a few weeks ago asked me if I had heard of the “zero is not a size” campaign led by Sophia Bush on the show One Tree Hill. I had, as I use to watch the show and talked about how I thought it was a great campaign. However I then looked at my friend realizing she was slightly bothered, and then she said something that I never though about.

I always thought it was a great campaign promoting the idea that you don’t need to be a size zero to have a beautifully body. But my friend said to me, ” But I am a size zero”. I never thought about the reverse harm of this campaign. Some girls don’t aim to be a size zero anymore than I aim to be a size 14. It’s just their body. And this campaign blatantly says that “zero isn’t a size”, well what if your size is zero? What is that saying about you?  My friend is a petite girl with a small frame, and honestly it is just as difficult if not even more difficult for her to find clothes than me. 

My blog is titled embrace healthy curves, and I applaud campaigns like “zero is not a size” for trying to break down the harsh standards the media sets for young girls and women, but I feel the true campaign that needs to be brought to a forefront is embracing every body type. If you are living a healthy, active, and fulfilling lifestyle it shouldn’t matter your dress size, you are absolutely beautiful. 

So for all my beautiful curvy followers, the next time you look at a super-skinny girl and curse her under your breath, take a step back, and realize she might not have chosen to be the size she is, that you might actually be more comfortable in your body than she is. True, she could just be another skinny bitch (pardon my french, but we all know them), but you don’t know.

The truth of the matter is in our modern society fashion and style is so streamline; beauty is defined by such a narrow list of characteristics, that girls of every size and shape struggle to embrace their body.

Something that made me think, and I thought I would share with all of you :) 

xxxi-i-mcmxcii:

Tara Lynn in “Belle Vere” issue of Vogue Italia June 2011

I posted this on my personal blog about a year ago. I thought it would be good here too :) 

itsjustthemiddleoftheride:

I have posted this picture before when I did comparison photo of myself back in February, but for some reason when I was staring at my body in the mirror this morning before my shower, all I could think of was the night I wore this dress.

I loved this dress. I thought it was incredibly elegant, and I fell in love with it the minute I tried it on. Now granted when I tried it on it was white, and 4 sizes too small. The white washed me out, so my mom and best friend and I decided on black, so I ordered a size 28 in black. ( I was really a 22/24 in other dresses/clothing, but this prom style ran really small)

The night of prom, after getting my hair done, nails, make-up all the works, I put on this beautiful dress, looked at myself in the mirror, and started crying as I turned from side to side.

The dress had undergone all sorts of alterations; The gorgeous top was the hardest part, because I needed the size 28 to fit my lower body, but I have always had small boobs :( So the seamstress had worked hard to alter the top without destroying the beadwork.

The problem was when I stared in that mirror wearing this dress, that even with the alterations the back of the dress sank a little below my normal resting bra/tank top line, exposing a disgusting roll of fat above the dress line. It was 1 of 4 rolls I had down my back at the time. My mom and I tried taping the dress up, but the top beading was too heavy it would always pull down. I felt like I was letting the dress down; that I wasn’t living up to its beauty. I felt hideous.

It caused my mom and I to fight for almost an hour, to the point I locked myself in the bathroom and didn’t want to go to prom. Now, I went, there is NO pictures of my back because I didn’t want there to be.

Overall prom was wonderful, I had great friends, everyone complemented my dress, and no one said anything negative about the back, but I knew, I was constantly aware all night; It might not seem like a big deal, but at points for me it felt like being naked in a room full of people. It is one of my most vivid memories from that night, and its saddens me that in that moment my weight defined me.

Now, the reason I am recounting this somewhat long-winded story is when I stared at my body in the mirror this morning, turning to look at my entire back. The roll I was so self-conscious about back then is gone. Almost all of them are gone, except for one that is still somewhat present towards the low arch of my back; but I am confident I can lose that one too. It made me smile, because more than any numerical progress I can attest to, that progress, the kind I witnessed in the mirror this morning is proof of how far I have come, how hard I have worked.

Another important reason I am recounting this story is that I think this girl looked beautiful, but she let something minuscule make her feel fat, ugly, etc. for an entire night. I hope no other girl ever has to experience that; don’t let the little things take away from allowing yourself to feel beautiful. Ever.

chubbyfashion:

Sparkle POWER!!!!!!!