A mother of three, 32-year old Rachel Hollis proved to the world that mothers should not be ashamed of their post-baby bodies no matter what happens. Yahoo! Parenting reported that "The Chic Site" founder posted a picture of herself on the site's Facebook page showing off her "flabby bikini body" on Saturday.
In the photo, Hollis was wearing a two-piece swimsuit while out on a beach getaway in Cancun with her husband. Hollis revealed to Yahoo! Parenting how the viral snapshot of her came about:
"We were just hanging out drinking tequila and I thought my monogramed bikini top was really cool so I asked my husband to take a photo of me,"
"When I saw the photo, I noticed my stomach and realized that I had never seen a really honest bikini shot on social media, so I thought, 'I'll just post this for the moms.'"
Within five minutes of being up on The Chic's Facebook page, the image has acquired 100 likes. On Tuesday, the snapshot had over 325K likes and over 41K shares because of the positive and inspirational message that it spreads.
Hollis captioned the photo with the message:
"I have stretch marks and I wear a bikini. I have a belly that's permanently flabby from carrying three giant babies and I wear a bikini. My belly button is saggy... (which is something I didn't even know was possible before!!) and I wear a bikini. I wear a bikini because I'm proud of this body and every mark on it. Those marks prove that I was blessed enough to carry my babies and that flabby tummy means I worked hard to lose what weight I could. I wear a bikini because the only man who's opinion matters knows what I went through to look this way. That same man says he's never seen anything sexier than my body, marks and all. They aren't scars ladies, they're stripes and you've earned them. Flaunt that body with pride!"
Following Hollis' admirable photo and message, many mothers began posting stories and photos behind their post-baby body photos, as well, as reported in ABC7.com.
With how warm her Facebook post was received, Hollis told Yahoo! Parenting, "It made me teary to read all the comments from women, all of whom had unique reasons for struggling with their weight. It's a reminder that we shouldn't judge anyone. If a mother is confident, her daughter will be too and her son will also view women more positively."
The Huffington Post reports that Hollis is a mother to kids ages 8, 6 and 2. According to the mom, she posted the photo with the hopes that others "feel inspired and encouraged to be proud of their bodies no matter what they look like!"
The lifestyle website founder also shared the lessons she learned about honesty, after posting the viral photo. She said, "Women want real. They want to see things that are aspirational but it needs to be tempered by the truth. It's fine to show lives on social media with blown out hair and cute outfits but we need to be honest about the hard stuff as well. The truth makes us feel like we're not alone ... the truth makes us think 'Me Too! I feel that way too!'"
