Social Media is a great way for millennials of the world to share selfies and artfully staged photos of food. But it has a much better purpose: to promote body positivity throughout the world.
There are hundreds of body positive hashtags circulating the Internet, via Instagram or Twitter or Facebook, and there is probably one no matter what your personal problem is. From celebrating the bodies of plus sized women, to those living with serious diseases, here nine great body positive hashtags to help any woman feel beautiful.
1. #LoveYourLines
Just like the caption says, this is a hashtag with it’s own account. It’s a safe space–a hatred-free zone–where women can submit photos of themselves loving the lines of their body. Usually, the lines refer to stretch marks, either from going through pregnancy or simply growing up into a woman. But it isn’t limited to stretch marks; the page also includes photos of women with mastectomy or cesarian section scars. This hashtag proves that even if your body isn’t perfectly photoshopped and air brushed, it’s still perfect because it’s yours.
2. #effyourbeautystandards
This is another hashtag that has expanded into it’s own page, and it currently has 128K followers and counting. A combination of professional photography, submissions, and positive quotes, this page is a fan favorite for body positivity and fair treatment for all women. Founder Tess Holiday (pictured above) has always been very vocal about accepting all body types, and is a perfect example that those who aren’t sample sizes are still beautiful.
3. #droptheplus
This hashtag gained national attention when model Stefania Ferrario took the photo above, and it took the world by storm. Along with author Ajay Rochester (mentioned in the comments) the duo is attacking the idea that any model over a size 4 is officially dubbed a “plus size” model. The model does not find this term empowering, and wants to let women all across the world know that they don’t need to be labeled as “plus sized” women, but just as women.
4. #feministsareugly
People who are concerned that #FeministsAreUgly are probably also concerned that MLK didn't have a six-pack. Enjoy Darwinism.
— Matt McGorry (@MattMcGorry) April 26, 2015
This hashtag mainly blew up on the Twitterverse, and had a lot of traction. Started by two women of color, @LilyBolourian and @Cheuya, the attempt was not to be mysongistic at all, but instead to call attention to the fact that the first thing a lot of people attack is a woman’s appearance. The women wanted to“fight back against the word ‘ugly,’ a word that not only tells you you’re ‘not beautiful’ but that you’ve failed to conform to the mainstream beauty ideal that is almost exclusively white.”
5. #imnomodeleither
This project was started as a response to the Lane Bryant #ImNoAngel hashtag. Created by the beautiful Amanda Kater, the purpose was to say that even though the campaign aimed to include a wider range of sizes and bodies, not every size was included. The size 18 blogger couldn’t identify with the models in the photos, so she took to Instagram, where she was met with a huge income of support.
6. #CelebrateMySize
So straightforward, this hashtag calls for all women to celebrate what they see in the mirror. Plus Model Magazine created the campaign to help all women feel comfortable in their own skin. The magazine goes one step further though, not only posting 10 photos with the hashtag per day to their Instagram account, but even including 12 photos a month in the print version of the mag. And with over 130k photos posted so far, it doesn’t seem to be going away any time soon.
7. #4thtrimesterbodiesproject
This may be the most mother-positive project on Instagram. It was created to show women that giving birth is a difficult process, and not getting their “pre-baby body” back isn’t something that they should be ashamed of. Although women’s magazines boast that you can do it with exercise and working out, a lot of women are living with their 4th trimester bodies, knowing that the miracle of giving birth is what makes their bodies beautiful, not the idea that they fit the media mold.
8. #GetYourBellyOut
Model Bethany Townsend has suffered from Crohn’s Disease for most of her life, and while taking an innocent bikini shot on vacation, she started a movement. The hashtag #getyourbellyout spread like fire, as a statement to women with Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis that they can still be beautiful, and that they shouldn’t let their colostomy bags shame them from showing off their bodies.
9. #LoseHateNotWeight
Virgie Tover, editor of Hot & Heavy, has confidence to boot, and is trying to spread that to other women through the creation of this hashtag. She hoped to help women feel more confident in their size and simultaneously point out that trying to force women to lose weight to fit a media standard is B.S. There are 8,000 uses of the hashtag so far, so hopefully the message is spreading.
[Featured Image Credit: culturewarereporters.com]
