When you’re programmed to believe from a young age that your body shape is wrong and needs to be fixed, it’s hard to combat decades of self-doubt.

I challenge my years of learned self-doubt by filling my Instagram stream with plus size models.

Size 12, size 20, size 22+?

They’re all in there.

[Just as an aside, I also follow mainstream beauties like Swimsuit Illustrated, Kate Upton, and Heidi Klum.]

They’re all beautiful women showing off their womanly bodies which don’t adhere to mainstream body guidelines.

And of course, I found this little song which is a like an earworm, it just can’t be unheard once you hear it:

“Big girl, you are beautiful.”

Not a bad chorus to have bouncing around in your head.

Why just yesterday in a fit of body confidence I slipped into a new Little Black Dress and went out with my friend Big Joe to get beers in Campbell at Out Of The Barrel.

Heels, wrap, big hair, LBD – the whole shebang.

Let people look, I figured.

In the end, no one died because I felt good about my non-mainstream body shape.

Although it certainly does feel like the world is coming to an end when you’re in the middle of a pandemic AND firestorm.

The whole time I was singing in my head, “Big girl, you ARE beautiful!”