Blogger Sarah Sapora hasn't worn a bikini in 25 years — until now. In a post to her blog, Sapora described why she eschewed the swimsuit for so long, and opened up about what led her to put one back on.
"The last time I wore a low-rise bikini, I was thirteen years old at 'fat camp,'" she wrote. "It wasn’t even mine; I borrowed it from a counselor and wore it just long enough to lay on a towel by the tennis court during rest period for 45 minutes that single summer day."
"It’s taken me 25 years to feel that free in my body again."
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She explained to Yahoo that she has since worn two-pieces, but they've always been high-waisted.
"Although I had worn high-waisted bikinis in the past, this was the first time I wore an actual string bikini," she said. "I was so nervous when I opened the box — it was the size of a scrunchie."
Now, she's putting the bikini on for a seriously gorgeous beachside photoshoot.
“I wanted to do this shoot with a male friend because there are so few representations of plus women just enjoying life without emphasis on their weight,” she told Yahoo.
Sapora wrote on her blog that while she's always loved herself, she's come to find a different definition of love: feeling free in her body, rather than merely accepting it.
"Feeling 'acceptance' in our skin isn’t the same thing as feeling free in our body," she wrote. "And, as I know now, it isn’t the same as feeling bold. Empowered. Ready. Excited. Energized. Lively."
Now that she's so much more comfortable in her body and who she is, she wrote, she's extending a call to her followers to embrace themselves.
"That anxiety you feel about who you are and what you look like?" she said. "That fear you have that people are looking and going to laugh at you for dreaming big, being bold, or coloring outside the lines? It’s bananas. When you ‘play small’ in your life, nobody wins. Least of all you."
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