While side-by-side photos are often used on Instagram to document athletic progress, many body-positive advocates have been using them to post photos taken only minutes apart to show just how deceptive social media can be.
Body-positive advocate Milly Smith, also known as @selfloveclubb, posted photos of herself on Instagram on Sunday to make a point about unrealistic body standards. One of the photos shows Smith wearing her control-top tights high up around her waist, while the other shows her wearing the tights slung low on her hips, exposing her stomach.
"Same girl, same day, same time," she wrote in her caption. "Not a before and after. Not a weight loss transformation. Not a diet company promotion."
"I am comfortable with my body in both," Smith continued. "Neither is more or less worthy. Neither makes me more or less of a human being."
She also wrote that she posted the photos to show her followers how different bodies can look, not only with certain clothes, but with certain angles and posing.
"We are so blinded to what a real unposed body looks like and blinded to what beauty is that people would find me less attractive within a 5 second pose switch," she wrote.
Smith, who has previously opened up on her Instagram page about her eating disorder and endometriosis, wrote that the photos were also therapeutic for her.
"I love taking these, it helps my mind so much with body dysmorphia and helps me rationalise my negative thoughts," she wrote. But most of all, she wanted to make the point that the "perfect body" can be just an illusion — and that's why comparing yourself to others can be so harmful.
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