It’s summer, y’all, and you know what that means; the days are getting longer, the shorts are getting shorter, and the pressure to have a tight bod is reaching its annual high.
That’s right, it’s the season of the “beach body,” when we’re bombarded with pictures of too-good-to-be-true, Photoshopped-to-perfection, sparkly sun-kissed bodies, accompanied by 21-day plans to get “bathing-suit ready.”
Upon exiting the soft and cozy layers of thick-knit sweaters and puffy coats and digging out your tanks and shorts, it can be hard to remember that every body is already a beach body.
Luckily there are Body Positive warriors and role models who can remind us of the power of celebrating and loving our bodies exactly as they are, instead of forcing our bodies to change shape in order to feel “good enough.” Do you know how much energy you would be wasting doing diets and sit-ups that could instead be spent soaking up those rays while reading an amazing book?
Being Body Positive, or BoPo (we love this abbrev!), means refusing to agree with cultural norms that say that if your body isn’t thin, toned, tall, and fully able, then there is something you need to “fix” in order for your beauty to be acceptable.
Now that’s a message we can get behind!
Whether you have Body Positive role models already or this is a totally new world to you, here are some BoPo activists who are celebrating the movement on Instagram:
The YA community has also embraced the BoPo movement, and we love it! There are so many authors who are fearlessly creating characters and stories that both shed light on the tough topics of eating disorders and body image and celebrate bodies that come in all shapes and sizes. Here are some of our favorite BoPo books:
