THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE LIKE OUR BODIES
Instagram can be a landscape of filters and perfection – we speak to three women tearing up the rule book
‘I no longer feel ashamed’
Sarah Smith, 32, lives in Leicester with her wife Carly, 32, and raises awareness for ileostomy bags on Instagram @positively_stella.
At just 16, in 2006, I was diagnosed with incurable inflammatory bowel disease, ulcerative colitis. For 13 years, I tried every available medication to help manage the condition but eventually doctors decided I needed an ileostomy, where the small bowel is diverted through an opening in the tummy and a stoma bag is fitted to collect waste. In April 2019, I had the surgery.
In the beginning, I struggled to come to terms with the bag and felt ashamed of it. I only had medical leaflets to show me what it was and how it worked, yet nothing to help me embrace it.
But six months after the surgery, when I’d had time to heal, I noticed how amazing
I felt. I hadn’t felt so well in years - and it was due to my stoma. So thrilled with the outcome, I decided I wanted to help others with stomas or with conditions that could result in a stoma bag, and to show it wasn’t embarrassing at all. I set up an Instagram account and posted a video of me changing Stella - my nickname for my stoma. I was nervous of the response but it was overwhelmingly positive. It gave me a confidence boost and soon I was posting snaps of my surgery site, educating my followers on the procedure. Each post received hundreds, often thousands, of likes. And the best part was getting messages thanking me for being so honest. Now, just over two years since I started my account, I have more than 8,000 followers and I’ve been nominated for the BBC’S Make a Difference Awards. I never thought posting a photo of Stella could make such a difference, not only for me, but to others, too.
‘I wanted to be the role model I didn’t have’
Katie Sturino, 41, is the founder of Megababe, author of Body Talk (£18.99, Penguin Random House) and a body-acceptance advocate. Follow her on Instagram @katiesturino.
As I scrolled through Instagram in 2014, my feed was inundated with filtered images of women with tiny waists, skinny thighs and immaculate skin.
Looking down at my size-16 body, it struck me that none of these thousands of images online looked like me or many of my friends. Where were the normal bodies on social media?
So I took it upon myself. I wanted to show different, curvier body sizes in a positive light in the hope it would help women feel good about their own bodies.
I started posting pictures of myself curves and all - on Instagram.
Of course, there were a few rude comments, but the response was mainly positive and it gave me the confidence to keep going.
Growing up, I had no role models who looked like me and it took me years to have the confidence to wear clothes I loved or to flaunt my curves in a bikini - and now I was posting pictures of my scantily clad, curvaceous body, for all my followers to see.
I wanted to teach people not to be negative towards their own bodies, no matter what size they are.
And now, I have more than 780,000 followers, and I’ve never felt prouder to flaunt my body to them all and inspire them to do the same.
The key to body confidence is body acceptance.
Once you get into the habit of stopping yourself when you start to talk poorly about you or your body, you’ll notice how much happier and naturally confident you are.