If your holiday season is going anything like mine, you’re already plotting how to take off a few new pounds in the new year. While ’tis the season to shower our family and friends with love, our self-care can unfortunately take a bit of a hit in the process.
Since none of us is immune to a little insecurity, I found myself griping about my “winter bod” to The Root’s contributing editor, Angela Bronner Helm, who instantly responded with a link to her favorite feel-good Instagram account, @the_illustrator_of_curves.
The not-entirely-safe-for-work page, helmed by a 26-year-old English illustrator who prefers to remain anonymous, is a celebration of bigger bodies in all their glory, making light of perfectly natural occurrences like cellulite, stretch marks and sagging breasts, while pushing back against body-shaming, rape culture and self-loathing. For the illustrator, it’s an exercise in radical self-acceptance, as she told HuffPost’s Alanna Cardona: “I’ve always had hips and a bum, smaller waist and boobs, and that’s what I drew.”
And the unconditionally loving lens that she casts on all body types—especially those that traditionally don’t get enough love from the media—renders some seriously sexy results.
So if your holiday indulgences have put a hurting on your self-esteem this year, perhaps a visit to @the_illustrator_of_curves is just the healthy reminder you need to go along with your postholiday “get healthy” game plan, because ...