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

Rachel Hollis runs the  popular lifestyle blog The Chic Site and is a mom of three- that is how she earned her her flabby stomach and stretch marks, the ones that she posted on her Facebook page that went viral. Hollis told CNN that he first reaction to the photo was to crop it, but then she thought again, “gosh I have never seen a woman post a picture like this” and she is right the first reaction most of have it either to delete it, filter it, or crop it. We have become accustom to editing our lives to be better versions of the ones we are actually living, and you wonder why we feel inadequate most of the time. I think this is why a simple photo like Hollis’ goes viral, we are so used to the airbrushed images we see in advertising, and on our own social media sites that this shocks us back in to our reality. We suddenly wake up, like someone doused us with cold water when we see someone unabashedly shows themselves…we have taken to calling this  “brave”. Sadly this is what a type of bravery in our world today.  showing one’s authentic self has been put on par with jumping out of a plane, running into a burning building, or going into a war zone….it is brave because the media, and the world of social media has become a war zone, and we as women are often enemy #1, targets for attack. So rock on Rachel let it all hang out!!!