Swimsuit Ad Stuns The Internet Honoring Beautiful Stretch Marks

Inspiration

Lane Bryant, a company dedicated to promoting body positivity and celebrating plus-size women, recently posted an ad of a swimsuit model who shows us that stretch marks are nothing to be ashamed of.

Many times, women who wear a bigger size get bullied and humiliated both online and in the real world simply for their body type and size. Well, the woman you’ll see below bares it all and looks simply beautiful while doing it, because anyone can have body confidence and feel great in their own skin.

Denise Bidot, the plus-size model featured in the photos, even has her own campaign called There Is No Wrong Way To Be A Woman. Lane Bryant posted the photos on their Instagram feed recently, with Denise wearing a nautical bikini and cover up that perfectly accentuates her curves and shows off her stretch marks to the world.

Notice that in the photo above, Lane Bryant does not attempt to hide Denise’s stretchmarks or photoshop them. Why? Well, because all women are beautiful and should be honored and appreciated just as they are, without feeling like they need to change. The company’s entire philosophy is built upon celebrating woman of all sizes, and showing the world real, untouched beauty.

Denise even posted the photo to her personal Instagram page with the following caption: “Loving this new image and how real it is,” she wrote. “Thank you Lane Bryant for loving my body, stretch marks and all.”

Brian Beitler, CMO and EVP of marketing at Lane Bryant wrote in an email to Huffington Post, “We at Lane Bryant simply believe that all women should be seen and celebrated as they are. Society and the media continuously project an unrealistic and frankly out-dated beauty and body standard.”

Beitler’s entire mission is to help women feel confident and happy with themselves and their bodies, but only hopes other companies will get on board. “Our hope is more brands will follow suit, not just in terms of shooting women without retouching, but being much more celebratory of all shapes and sizes and bodies,” Beitler told SELF. “That’s the real intent here.”

Denise simply wants to continue spreading the message of self-love and body positivity, and hopes to inspire all women to truly love themselves. After receiving dozens of positive comments on the image, “from women who have stretch marks [and] who don’t have stretch marks,” Bidot told SELF that she thinks women have finally begun to embrace themselves. “Oh, okay, I can be this way and it is wonderful,” she said. “And there’s nothing wrong with it.”