When Nike released their awesome plus-size clothing line, we were pretty psyched about it. Well, most of us were. Some didn't take too kindly to the fact that a major company was designing clothes for fat people to work out in, claiming that plus-size women can't also be healthy, and that Nike shouldn't be making clothes for them.
Now, Grace Victory, one of Nike's new plus-size models, is shutting down fat-shamers and their flawed logic.
On Monday morning, Victory aptly tweeted, "Fat shaming me and my girl on our Nike campaign is hilarious. We be laughing all the damn way to the bank."
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She also followed up her tweet with a powerful blog post about how she combats body insecurities and body-shaming. In the post, titled "I Think I've Lost My Body Confidence," Victory opened up about battling an eating disorder, and how she avoids comparing herself to others.
"I've dreaded going out because I'm paranoid that people will look at me and think 'ew,'" she wrote. "I've struggled to simply get dressed because the curve of my stomach and the dimples of my thighs make me feel really sad. I've read fat shaming comments about myself which has filled me with self doubt and questions like; do I need to change? should I eat more 'healthily'? will losing weight make them stop? (spoiler, it won't)."
Victory also opened up about the pressure she feels as someone in the "body-positive community" to always feel good about herself so that she can encourage others, but that's not always a realistic goal.
"There is also an added pressure being part of the body positive community, to love myself day in and day out," she wrote. "But right now I just can't. Right now, I've lost my body confidence and I don't know how or when I'll get it back. I know its normal to feel this way, but it makes me even more upset that feeling so bogged down about my body is acceptable."
Victory is right — we don't always feel 100% great about our bodies, and that's okay. What matters, however, is what we do about it. As for her, she's got some great tips on how we can all fight against the negativity.
"I'm taking today out," she concluded in her blog post. "I'm going to have an evening to myself to indulge in self care, both physical and mental. Yes I'm going to have the longest bath, wrap myself in a blanket and watch crime shows. But I'm also going to go for a long walk, make myself a sexy dinner, read, meditate and place a small (I'm lying) order on Boohoo for some new threads for my upcoming trip.
I know I'll be back to feeling myself soon enough but for now, here's to a mini digital detox and some time out to find a little happiness."
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