Rachel Hollis is a regular mum of three, a wife and has a blog called The Chic Site. The other day, whilst on holiday in Cancun, she posted a photo to her Facebook of her in a bikini on the beach. Sounds about normal for us Cape Town folk, doesn’t it? We’ve all posted a million pictures of the same thing.

The question is, would you post this image of yourself?

This is what Rachel has to say about it:

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! #HollisHoliday

The picture has now gone viral – within an hour it had 100 likes, and four days later it’s zooming past 350 000.

Speaking to The Huffington Post, Rachel said that she is “totally humbled and overwhelmed by all the attention and so grateful that it’s lifting up other moms in a positive way”. She also “hopes her photo post helps people feel inspired and encouraged to be proud of their bodies no matter what they look like!”.

There’s nothing wrong with having a few stretch marks, ladies. Lady Gaga has some on her boobs and Jessica Alba (gasp! I know!) has a few on her thighs. Halle Berry and Julia Roberts do too, you know. If you would like to see a bit of a reduction in appearance though, I suggest you visit a Skin Renewal Clinic – they have treatments and products that can make a change.

[Source: The Huffington Post]