Cellulite Selfies Are the Latest Instagram Trend to Promote Body Positivity

by Souzan Michael

Say what you want about Instagram and its often negative effects on self-esteem (we won’t deny that it can be rough scrolling through pics of impossibly flawless selfies), but if you search in the right places, you’ll find that social media has actually been one of the best things to happen for the body positivity movement.

Take for instance, the latest viral trend, #CelluliteSaturday. The hashtag was started to promote cellulite acceptance, and often photos are accompanied by stats about upwards of 90% (!!!) of women having cellulite somewhere on their bodies, to which we say a loud and resounding yaaassss.

We’ve rounded up our faves of the cellulite selfie movement, so take a look below if you want a serious mood boost.

Ate tacos and street corn at stupid hours of the night with @hklaire6 and woke up feeling bloated. Usually, that would make me feel bleh about myself and set me up for a bad body image day. I said fuck that I gotta practice what I preach and put on my @437swimwear bikini (I'm a medium in top and bottom but the top is too small). It's easy to forget that the girl on the left also looks like the girl on the right when you're scrolling through social media. NO ONE is perfect and we all have our "flaws and imperfections". But they're what make us unique and what make us, us. Don't feel bad if you have cellulite, stretch marks, excess skin, rolls, what ever the fuck… because it's normal and we all have it. My legs are covered in cellulite. My ass is covered in stretch marks. I get tummy rolls when I sit. My ass flaps when I walk. It's normal, dude. Completely, 100% normal. Don't ever let anyone make you feel like it's not or that you're any "less" for having these things. #slimthick #thickfit #bodypositivity #bodiposi #cellulitesaturday Inspired by @omgkenzieee and @elizabethzaks ?? Yes my mirror is dirty, I'm like… so aware. But when you have two dogs who seem to be fascinated with their reflections and slightly narcissistic, they lick it. And I don't have an endless supply of windex so shut up about it and clean ur own mirror ok. Thank u. #windexsponsorme

A photo posted by Arianna Dantone (@ariannadantone) on

Happy #cellulitesaturday ??? Do you know why I post photos like these? Why I'm not afraid to take photos in my underwear? Because I can only imagine how my life would have been different, as a young girl, had I seen more women's bodies that looked like this. Not just my body type, but ALL body types. More bodies that were natural and unphotoshopped. Bodies that were real, not manipulated by the media and by computers and FaceTune programs. Bodies that told me in their confidence and unabashed squish that they were loved. ️ ? THAT is why I'm not afraid to show the way my body rolls or dimples or squishes, because my body is perfectly imperfect. (And if you don't follow my home girl @omgkenzieee and her #cellulitesaturday movement, you need to, she is an #embracethesquish QUEEN and she gives me life ??)

A photo posted by Gina ?️ (@nourishandeat) on

Love the skin you're in! – @notoriouslydapper #Repost from @deegetsstronger No filters, no edits, no sucking in, no nothing. Just smack dab in the middle of some good ol' "flaw" showing sunlight. Lighting can fully change how someone looks; and odds are, most of the women you know have had their pictures taken in lighting that hides their "flaws" the most, out of either insecurity or shame. But reality is, the vast majority of women have cellulite, scars or stretch marks on their bodies. It's in our biology, and it's simply how our bodies are meant to grow, slim down and store fat. Diet industries and public figures have caused such a stir about how our bodies "should" look like, that we've forgotten how to embrace ourselves as we naturally are. We've got our minds so rapped up into looking like one particular body, that we've lost conscious of how impossible it is for two bodies to be exactly alike. Our own damn bodies don't even look the same throughout the lengths of a day, yet we're still falling for a social ideal which simply cannot be met? To love yourself as you are, and move towards a better you, you have learn more about yourself and your body first. It takes time, and it takes strength, and you will have your downfalls, but I promise you, there is no greater feeling than embracing yourself for who you truly are? #cellulitesaturday

A photo posted by ?EFF YOUR BEAUTY STANDARDS™?? (@effyourbeautystandards) on

I felt beautiful when I took these pictures. I flounced around in that little green bikini, taking selfies and feeling a bit like a rockstar. And I still felt beautiful when I posed in a way that put my #cellulite on show for #cellulitesaturday. But I've been thinking a lot about body positivity recently and I want to stress something too: we don't *always* have to feel beautiful. Women are told their beauty matters above all else, and that this beauty should look a certain way. I love that the body positive movement challenges the definition of beauty, but I also appreciate the posts that stress that looks shouldn't be so goddamn important in the first place. There are a myriad of reasons you should feel good about yourself that have squat to do with your looks. So here's to feeling beautiful on some days, and perfectly ordinary the next. . . . . . . . . . #selflove#bopowarrior#bodyposi#bodypositivity#embracethesquish#everyBODYisbeautiful#thisiswhatfitlookslike#bodylove#realrecovery#beyourself#recovery#shareyourspark#daretobedifferent#nonairbrushedme#girlsthatlift#thickthighs#bodyimage#effyourbeautystandards#allwomenproject#feminism#feminist#body4me#lovemymiddle

A photo posted by natalia valentyne (@nataliavalentyne) on

GOOD MORNINGGGG ☀️? So, today is #cellulitesaturday ?? Let's talk stats ok? These are pretty wild to me. 42% of girls in grade 1-3 want to be thinner ? 78 fucking % of 17 year old girls are unhappy with their bodies ? "Teenage girls are more afraid of gaining weight then getting cancer, losing their parents or nuclear war." ??? In 2013 the American Medical Association created a policy that really didn't go anywhere, stating that the effects of digitally altering images to impressionable youth were so harmful they cause HEALTH PROBLEMS. I'm not fucking making this shit up people. And did it do anything? Nope. That's why offering up my #realbody, unedited, unfiltered for you to look at, for trolls to rip apart, is important because we have LITERALLY FORGOTTEN WHAT REAL BODIES LOOK LIKE. To quote WIKIPEDIA "cellulite occurs in 80-90% of women, the prevailing medical condition is that it's 'merely the normal condition of many women.'" ?NORMAL. It's fucking NORMAL.? With stats above it drives me so hard so that way my future daughters and sons grow up with more real images of bodies around them than I did. To pray their mental and physical health isn't as affected as mine was. #fuckyeahhhhh #thisbody #celluliteisokay #bodyconfidence #nobodyshame #recovery #bodyimage #bodyimageissues #cellulite

A photo posted by Kenzie Brenna (@omgkenzieee) on

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