Marie Claire has recently collaborated with female celebrities to present to us the "Dear Body.." Movement. Leeyonce, Zodwa Wabantu & Khanyi Mbau just to name a few, are one of the celebrities that were brought onto the campaign. They've been gracefully photographed nude and their "Dear Body" thoughts posted on twitter. Since the launch of the movement, Marie Claire's mentions have been increasing with "Dear Body" sentiments from females all over South Africa - perhaps even internationally?

I love this movement for several reasons but the one that stands out to me is that it encourages body positivity. In a world where women are held to unattainable beauty standards, we need movements like these to remind our young millennial women to appreciate their bodies.


BODY POSITIVITY SHOULD NOT JUST BE A MOVEMENT, IT SHOULD BE A WAY OF LIFE 💅✌

This can't happen if we critique and break down our fellow sisters. We face enough judgement from patriarchal men who feel entitled to the female body. Body Positivity starts among us as a sisterhood of phenomenal women.  When we've become accustomed to bringing each other down, it can be hard for us as women to hold ourselves back from critiquing other women but its the trying that counts. If you make it a goal each day to either compliment a fellow babe or find positive things about each babe you come across (you can verbaliSe these or just say them mentally) you're well on your way to curving a bad habit.

I always say that more of us need to spread messages of love in the comments section of a babe who's posted a picture of herself. Social media can be ruthless so use it to spread love and not hate! I also want to encourage more women to post body positive images on their social media. The reason for this is so that young millennial women who have been conditioned to think that they should meet the beauty standards of the media and or society can come to see that we as individuals should set our own individual standards of beauty for ourselves and to instill self-love and appreciation of ones body.

 YOUR BODY DOES NOT NEED TO BE FLAWLESS 😕
When I had stretchmarks on my breasts, I used to think there was something wrong with me. The women on TV and in magazines did not have a single stretchmark or cellulite in sight. This made me extremely self-conscious and affected my style of dressing. I didn't feel beautiful enough because I had something - which at that time I didn't know - that is natural.

Your body is not made to be flawless simply because we are imperfect! Stretchmarks, cellulite, freckles and etc-etc have been made to be looked at as abnormal.


SELF-LOVE STARTS WITH IDENTIFICATION 📣📢

Too much emphasis is placed on loving the things you don't love about yourself and coming to terms/accepting who you are. What about loving your sexy eyebrows which don't need to be threaded because they're shaped naturally and beautifully? or the softness of your cute, tiny hands that look good with any nail polish on?

It's not only about what we don't like about ourselves, but about what we do. It's important that we identify the things we love about ourselves the most, they are the positvity to our negativity.

YOU CAN NEVER PLEASE SOCIETY 😒😒


When I was skinny, I was too skinny and when I gained weight my stomach wasn't flat enough. You can never please society even if you feel like you've met its expectations. Thinking about this can help you put a lot of things into perspective. If they're going to have something bad to say about you even if you're winning, why pay them any attention? Just live your life on your own terms, with your own standards of beauty.

THE GRAM IS A SHAM ✋👎

A lot of young women are victims of the gram. That is, Instagram. With Photoshop, and acne/pimple-smoothing apps, you can never 100% trust what you see on Instagram. For most, this is where their self-consciousness and lack of confidence develop, seeing "Perfect" babes who get praised in the comment sections, allows  comparison to creep in within their minds and dissatisfaction to settle in their hearts. If you come across anything that evokes negative feelings, un-follow that account. It's something you can do to protect your mental health and your self-esteem.

Always remember that people highlight their wins and conceal their losses on the gram. So, you're never really getting the full picture unless someone decides to show you.

With All of this being said, Here is my "Dear Body":

Dear Body, thank you for sticking by me even when I hated you. Thank you for growing so blissfully, for creating the stretchmarks around my waist that symbolise my womanhood.  Thank you for loving me and healing me. Dear body, Thank you. You've stuck with me even when I was intoxicating you with Alcohol. You comforted me and you stood by me. You are always looking out for me, fighting the evil forces that wage war inside of me, you fight for me. Dear body, Thank you.