This Blogger Is Embracing Her "Visible Belly Outline"

Alice Sholl
·Contributor
_selfloveclub_
The blogger showing off her “visible belly outline.”
[Photo: Instagram/_selfloveclub_]

Since we were old enough to be aware of unrealistic beauty standards (aka depressingly young) the first thing most of us agonized over was our own, non-flat, stomach.

Society dictates that certain things on a woman’s boy are meant to stick out — boobs and butts — but not too much. It also dictates that certain things are not meant to stick out at all, namely our bellies.

That’s a stigma that one body-positive blogger is out to change. She goes by @_selfloveclub and she’s urging people of the world to embrace their “VBO” — or Visible Belly Outline — so that we can all get back to the more important things in life, like enjoying our summers.

Cheers to a summer of rocking clothing that give you a visible tummy outline. • Cheers to not giving a sh✨t what people think about your body or the way you dress. • Cheers to embracing what we've been told not to wear because it doesn't "flatter our body type". • Cheers to living free of judgement, reservations, and inhibitions. • Life is short, enjoy it. Don't let others affect your happiness and self worth. Bellies are cute and worth showing off. #BEinyourskin #embracethesquish #allbodiesaregoodbodies ????????????

A post shared by P O S I T I V E V I B E S (@_selfloveclub_) on May 24, 2017 at 9:22am PDT

“Cheers to a summer of rocking clothing that give you a visible tummy outline,” she wrote in an Instagram post. “Cheers to not giving a sh*t what people think about your body or the way you dress. Cheers to embracing what we’ve been told not to wear because it doesn’t ‘flatter our body type’. Cheers to living free of judgement, reservations, and inhibitions. Life is short, enjoy it. Don’t let others affect your happiness and self worth. Bellies are cute and worth showing off.” Preach.

The other day I saw this "helpful" article that described where, when, and how you should rock a crop top. • The article stated that you should NEVER wear a crop top with low rise pants or bottoms that reveal body fat (god forbid someone realizes you have rolls). • Articles like these basically tell women who have fat on their bodies that HEY, CROP TOPS ARE NOT FOR YOU. Just like we were told for so damn long that bikinis weren't for us either. • It's so damn exhausting feeling like society is policing your body – I am freeing myself of that. It's actually incredibly liberating to find things that society tells chubby / fat / "non-ideal body types" NOT to wear and friggin WEAR IT. WEAR IT AND CHANGE THE DAMN CONVERSATION. SHOW THE WORLD HOW ADORABLE CROP TOPS LOOK WITH YOUR ROLLS SHOWING. • I refuse to listen to these imaginary rules – who created them? WE NEED TO TALK ???????????????? • • • Crop top by the lovely @1aeon ???? #BEinyourskin #croptopsareforeveryone #stoppolicingwomensbodies

A post shared by P O S I T I V E V I B E S (@_selfloveclub_) on May 22, 2017 at 8:47am PDT

This concept of self-love is surprisingly simple but so hard to internalize — think about how much brain space we’d save if we stopped penalizing ourselves for what our bodies look like?

Her followers clearly feel similarly and it sounds like her post was just what many of them needed to hear. “Just cried reading this. Thank you x [sic] a million,” one wrote.

“I have a twin mom pooch now and I’m so ashamed of it and walk around daily fearing that I’ll get asked if I’m pregnant again even though that can never, ever happen without IVF,” said another.

Thick thighs and chubby bellies are nothing to be ashamed of. Our squish is part of who we are and it is normal and beautiful. I try daily to look in the mirror and tell myself that I am beautiful. Imperfections make us perfect and flaws make us flawless tbh. Take today to #embracethesquish ???? • Remember: be gentle with yourself, you're still growing ????

A post shared by P O S I T I V E V I B E S (@_selfloveclub_) on May 23, 2017 at 2:12pm PDT

“I feel like crap and your post has really gripped me,” another follower wrote. “You look so beautiful to me… so I just need to start seeing that in myself!”

These are #SummerGoals we can definitely get behind.

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