Yes it is April, and yes I do now realise that I haven’t actually published anything yet this year and yes I do think this is shocking and yes I am sorry. Wow, so much yes.

I’ve not come back to complain, or to rant or to persuade. I’m not here to review. I’ve returned to share with you something very special which I have discovered- new role models. (How’s that for an anticlimax?)

I was anti-Instagram prior to buying my Hudl, and then in a moment of madness (something to which I am prone it would appear) I decided to download all of the ‘social’ apps that I could think of. That included Instagram. I post photos, sometimes of my face and sometimes of things that I know nobody cares about, and I like to look at other people’s photos. Having given up Facebook for lent means that I have spent even more time on the visual social network over the past few weeks.

At first I just ‘followed’ (aka stalked the photos of) the people I knew. Then a series of badge related posts led me to connect with Guiders and Senior Section members from all over the place. After all, they will always be my favourite kind of people. Then came my discovery…
#effyourbeautystandards and the world of ‘Fatshion bloggers.’

Obviously by ‘discovery’ I mean new to me and not just new to the world. Or maybe they are? Maybe you don’t realise that they exist either, in which case please do let me share!

Some of them are blog writing bloggers, some of them are just instabloggers (is that a thing?). In which format, and on which site, they post is irrelevant however. They are all connected because they have one thing in common (and for some it’s quite possibly the only thing that they have in common!). They are plus size and proud.

These women (because it is nearly all ladies) are basically everything that I would love to be. They’re confident, they’re carefree and more than anything else in the world they are happy. Not just sometimes happy (I acknowledge that nobody is always happy), but they are so happy in themselves that they can always be happy. Maybe just as importantly is the fact that these ladies are happy in themselves, they are happy with who they are, not happy with themselves, on the most part they’re not that cocky confident type. Of course there are always exceptions but they are not important.

I find these ladies inspiring. Maybe I don’t always agree with their outfit choices but I am so jealous that they have the confidence to wear whatever the Hell they want regardless of society. These woman don’t need a man (or woman if so inclined) to love them because they are capable of loving themselves. I want to be able to do that again. I want to bring back my ‘Screw you, I don’t give a damn what you think’ attitude that I was wearing when I was 19.

These woman have hot footed their way up my list of inspiring ladies because they are perfection. They’re societal flaw is their strength. They’re not celebrities (although some of them probably are in their own rights). They’re real. They haven’t undergone aesthetic surgeries. They’re real. They’re not doing anything dangerous, they’re simply embracing who they are. Amongst them are pioneers for the battle against the image of the ideal woman. They don’t slag off other women’s appearance because they have embraced the idealism that every body is beautiful.  These ladies have granted me hope that I can be truly happy again without having to lose ridiculous amounts of weight. I now aim to have a mind like one of them, and not a body like some girl from a magazine. (No denying that there will always be some part of me yearning for that media friendly body but since I’m lazy the mindset is infinitely more achievable!)

It’s your mind that’s the problem, not my body.

my instagram 🙂