3 women who are encouraging body positivity

We are being suffocated by the idea that we have to be flawless. Society has put the idea in our heads that if we aren’t flawless we aren’t good enough. Mainstream media is constantly mocking celebrities for gaining weight or having acne or wearing a tracksuit and it’s only having a negative impact on us. It’s perfectly fine if Jennifer Lawrence wants to go to the shop in a tracksuit with her hair scraped back, it’s normal and it’s something we all need to accept. As 2017 approaches set yourself one goal – embrace yourself. It’s time for us to ignore the pressure to look a certain way and to start embracing our own skin.

The following women are the ones who will guide you and inspire you to feel confident in your own skin. Firstly, Laura Jane Williams is an author, blogger and columnist for Grazia magazine. She is also one of the leading ladies on Instagram inspiring women with her self love posts and body confidence. On her blog Superlatively Rude, Laura shares her story about how comfort eating helped her during difficult times in her life.

She gained forty pounds and her summer clothes no longer fit. Her body had changed, but what also changed was how she started to care for herself. She discusses self love on her blog “I’m kinder to myself than ever before, and that kindness? It’s so massive, it needs bigger knickers, is all.” Caring about ourselves is something we fail to do. It should be one of our biggest priorities but we tend to neglect ourselves, and instead we invest our time in work, college, relationships and social lives. Laura Jane Williams currently has over 8,000 followers on her Instagram @superlativelylj where she posts body positive photos and shares her influential words that every woman needs to read.

Melanie Murphy is another influential figure who is helping women with body confidence and self worth. Melanie is an Irish YouTuber who has over 424,000 subscribers on her channel. Melanie openly discusses her battle with acne, as well as her struggle with a number of disorders including binge eating disorder and body dysmorphia. By sharing her story with the world and with her audience, Melanie is helping beat the taboo surrounding eating disorders. Talking about this topic is not only educating women, but it is showing them that it is okay to talk about it and that they’re not alone in this battle. According to the Health Research Board, 87% of people admitted with and affected by eating disorders were female.

By talking about it and having healthy discussions we can help decrease these horrifically high figures. People like Melanie are spreading a positive and informative message about body image and more importantly eating disorders. Melanie is proof that you can beat the disorder and believes that the secret to happiness is to have a healthy body and a healthy mind.

Rupi Kaur is a poet whose book Milk and Honey is a New York Times bestseller. The book is full of raw and honest poetry about topics including abuse, consent, self love, heartache and femininity. Her poetry is full of meaning and warmth. She's spreading a positive and reassuring message to women. We need to invest our time in learning how to love and accept ourselves, instead of trying to alter ourselves into looking the way the media believes we should look.

These are the women we need to listen to. Let's step away from the flawless front covers of high fashion magazines and start listening to the words of wisdom these ladies are sharing.

“And I said to my body, softly, ‘I want to be your friend’, and it took a long breath and replied, ‘I have been waiting my whole life for this.’”- Rupi Kaur