Search on social media the term #tigerstripes and you’ll be greeted by a giant gallery of tummy, thigh and boob photos.
Once hidden away under shapewear and a source of embarrassment, there is a growing movement to make stretchmarks be seen as a badge of honour.
Women like this one (main photo) are sick of hiding how their bodies responded to growing bubs and are posting shots like these.
“After 3 babies this is how my tummy looks. Am I ashamed of it? Definitely not! Do I care what others think? Definitely not! Do I love my body? Absolutely! Would I ever consider an abdominoplasty? No way Jose! I am beautiful on the inside and outside. If I don’t love me and all of my flaws how can I expect someone else to love me? It starts within. Self love is always the best love!”
This week Aussie supermodel and mother-of-one, Robyn Lawley again threw her support behind the subliminal campaign to normalise stretchmarks – she has always been out and proud about hers -with this Instagram post which reads:
“Each line holds a story of growth and change that my body has gone through, once when I was a teen and grew hips suddenly and of course when I grew most of my height they are etched all over my body. The other in fact are way more important they taught me to re love my body and they grew when my baby daughter did inside of me. These are not lines I should be ashamed of these are lines I should be empowered by!”
The stretchmark movement is making mums around the world feel better about their bodies. Here are just some responses to mum Shantique Paul’s post (main image).
*“This…I needed this. Thank you for appreciating yourself and sharing this. I’ve been so scared of what my postpartum body will do to my self esteem. Posts like this give me hope.”
“Thank you for this. I always get down on myself because of my postpartum body. Especially because I have not ever been in a solid relationship. I now know the relationship I should improve is the one with my body. This picture blessed me in so many ways.”
“Looks like a tree, like the tree of life. You brought life into this world and now a tree is forming.”*
Shantique, who as three children aged 12, 8 and 5, also spoke with The Huffington Post about this post, saying: “I’m tired of society telling us what beauty is and what beauty isn’t. I thought, ‘let me post something that will hopefully let the women out here like me know that you’re not alone.’”
“My kids mean so much to me and who I am as a woman,” she said, adding that she wouldn’t trade motherhood “for a thing in the world” – not even a “perfect” body.
Does this inspire you to join the #tigerstripe movement and share your stretchmarks with the world?
