An Australian Instagram model has used her platform to encourage body love and positivity by sharing own weight gain.
If you log into Instagram right now and check out your explore page, odds are you'll see at least a dozen posts related to weight loss. Specifically, women who have undergone significant body transformations to shed those "unsightly" pounds and adopt a body that modern beauty standards would deem "acceptable."
Body-shaming is a totally real and totally disgusting concept that many of us have had the unfortunate experience dealing with. Particularly with the new age of social media.
People are now more than ever able to voice their opinions about something or someone, no matter how negative those opinions are.
For many, they've gained their significant online following for showing off their socially acceptable bodies — that is, small waists, toned tummies, sculpted faces, etc. There's definitely pressure to maintain these bodies, or otherwise lose the following they've worked to build.
According to Unilad, Australian-based bikini model Karina Irby first rose to fame on the social media site nine years ago, weighing in at just 119lbs.
Now she weights in at a much healthier 141lbs.
After an image of her younger self recently resurfaced, Karina felt encouraged to post a body transformation photo on Instagram and show her 1 million followers what body positivity and self love looks like.
In the post comparing her old physique to her new one, she explains that Facebook showed her a photo of herself from nine years ago, and she was "shocked" to see how skinny she looked.
"I remembered that as my body was maturing I was gaining weight, curves, and more fake reasons to feel self conscious about my appearance."
"I used to put so much pressure on myself to try and keep my teenager look," she wrote. "But not only was it unhealthy, it just wasn't in the cards for me."
She encouraged her followers to stop being so hard on themselves and to "worship the heck" out of their bodies, because she wishes she had done the same sooner.
She also said she thought she was happy, but now looking back on the photos, she realizes she was "lost, trying to find a way to happiness and accepting myself."
One user wrote, "You are so beautiful - it comes from your heart and shines all the way out" while another told Karina she is her "motivation."
With so many young, impressionable people on Instagram, it's so refreshing to come across an influencer promoting body positivity.
Karina isn't telling her followers to look one way or another, or saying one is better than the other - she just wants everyone to love themselves and worship their bodies.
We should be able to look at ourselves in the mirror and love ourselves, no matter what our body looks like now or used to look like when we were teenagers.
