#belly lines

[irregardlessokyouwin]

[rachelpolicano]

Today, I let every curve of my body show. 

Today, I wear a bodycon tank dress – nude in color, with black horizontal stripes of varying widths and a slightly low cut V-neck – to just sit around the house on my day off, because that’s how much I embrace and adore my own body. I sit here feeling sexy simply for myself; there is no requirement that someone must see you in order for you to feel sexy. 

Today, more importantly, I embrace visible belly lines.

Because I am not ashamed of them; I am not ashamed of any part of my body. I am beautiful and I absolutely know it.

I was first introduced to the concept of “loving your belly lines” by Jes Baker/The Militant Baker, here. What a great post that is. Really. And I’d be lying if I said that all the photos included in the post weren’t inspiring to no end. 

You see... My belly has always been a source of my many insecurities. The love handles that define my hips, with the pronounced trench that runs between the bottom of my stomach and my thunder thighs...  I’ve always wished this trench wasn’t there, that I had smooth hip instead of hips cut in half by years of low-rise pants and underwear sitting in the only comfortable spot possible for such garments.

But no more.

I will repeat over and over how long it took/has taken me to have the self-confidence and self-love I’ve always wanted. It’s something I’ve worked for over 7+ years and still continuously strive toward; you can never have enough self-love. 

Even as Jes mentions in her own blog post, learning to love your belly is never easy... but that doesn’t mean it cannot be done. 

Through plus size movements like #RockTheCrop, this new discovery of #VBOs (Visible Belly Outlines) and their surrounding support, AND my own adventure – getting my navel pierced back in February (2015) – my belly has become a true thing of beauty. And to add my own belly to those being positively represented on the web, I’m proud to embrace this part of myself.

Never in a million years, as my younger self, would I have believed I would be wearing crop tops or any other tummy revealing clothing, let alone making people slightly uncomfortable with my copious amounts of body confidence. 

But that’s what happens when a liberal gal like myself – who spends much of her time on the internet, reading and learning about that various walks of life out there – lives amongst a range of conservative, traditional, conventional people. I embrace my curves while they tell me to hide them away. 

I don’t hate anyone by any means because of what they may have said over the years, but I did have a habit of believing something was wrong with me simply because I was a plus size, FAT girl. 

But again I say, no more. 

As of now, as of TODAY, as of how fantastic this dress is... I rock my visible belly outlines in all their glory and become the fierce woman I know myself to be.