52 Body-Positive Babes, Books & other Resources to learn from

Stop the body hate, a revolution is afoot

I know what it’s like not to like your body. I’ve learned that has more to do with the toxic messaging we’re bombarded with from so many angles every day than how my body actually looks. There’s no one right way to have a body. But how do you learn to love your own?

What I do is seek out some amazing people to be inspired by, and learn from (and if you’re used to scrolling through an instagram feed full of thin women in bikinis, you could probably use some variety).

And that’s what I have for you today: a long list of incredible, smart women (mostly) that are fighting to build up body positivity, promote self-love and tear down diet-culture.

But first let me clarify… Body positivity is much more than feeling positive about your body. Body positivity is about equal rights, representation and treatment of fat and otherwise marginalised bodies.

Yes, body positivity can help you learn to feel good about or bodies, but we can’t forget that society treats people of different sizes differently, and therefore fat acceptance, regardless of your own size, is a cornerstone concept.

Sounds confusing? Maybe.

But we’re here to learn (including me!). And these people are some of the best to learn from.

Now I’m not an expert on body positivity and issues relating to it, and I won’t pretend to be. Therefore, I think one the best ways I can support the movement is to amplify the voices of people who do, including actually fat people (who, ironically, too often are excluded from the mainstream conversation on body positivity).

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All bodies are good bodies. #RadicalSelfLove c💃🏼💃🏼💃🏼💃🏼💃🏼💃🏼💃🏼💃🏼💃🏼💃🏼💃🏼💃🏼💃🏼💃🏼💃🏼💃🏼💃🏼💃🏼💃🏼💃🏼💃🏼💃🏼💃🏼💃🏼💃🏼💃🏼 💃🏼💃🏼💃🏼💃🏼💃🏼💃🏼💃🏼💃🏼(‼️‼️Your nasty comments will only be a true reflection of how you feel about yourself⁉️⁉️) 🤸🏾‍♂️🤸🏾‍♂️🤸🏾‍♂️🤸🏾‍♂️🤸🏾‍♂️🤸🏾‍♂️🤸🏾‍♂️🤸🏾‍♂️🤸🏾‍♂️🤸🏾‍♂️🤸🏾‍♂️🤸🏾‍♂️🤸🏾‍♂️🤸🏾‍♂️🤸🏾‍♂️🤸🏾‍♂️🤸🏾‍♂️🤸🏾‍♂️Coz WE ALL CAREFREE here 🤸🏾‍♂️🤸🏾‍♂️🤸🏾‍♂️🤸🏾‍♂️🤸🏾‍♂️🤸🏾‍♂️🤸🏾‍♂️🤸🏾‍♂️🤸🏾‍♂️🤸🏾‍♂️🤸🏾‍♂️🤸🏾‍♂️🤸🏾‍♂️🤸🏾‍♂️🤸🏾‍♂️🤸🏾‍♂️🤸🏾‍♂️ From our #RadicalSelfLove campaign 💦💦💦💦💦💦💦💦💦💦💦💦💦💦💦💦💦💦💦💦💦💦💦💦💦💦💦💦💦💦💦💦 A SPIRIT OF LAUGHTER , SELF-LOVE AND BODY CELEBRATION! #RADICALSELFLOVE Capaign by @oyamabotha Check out www.yammieheartsandcurves.blogspot.co.za for more ❤️ #GirlGaze _______________________________________________________________________ #celebratemysize #effyourbeautystandards #plusisequal #thickwomen #curvesaresexy #african #beach #CapeTown

A post shared by Yammie Hearts & Curves (@oyamabotha) on Oct 5, 2017 at 3:53am PDT

Books to browse

The following links are affiliate links

Body Positive Power: How to stop dieting, make peace with your body and live* by Megan Jayne Crabbe
The Body is not an apology – The power of radical self-love by Sonya Renee Taylor
Things No One Will Tell Fat Girls: A Handbook for Unapologetic Living
by Jes Baker (and I’m sure her second book, Landwhale, will be interesting too)
Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay
Health At Every Size – The Surprising Truth about your Weight by Linda Bacon
Body Respect: What Conventional Health Books Get Wrong, Leave Out, and Just Plain Fail to Understand about Weight by Linda Bacon
The Not So Subtle Art of Being a Fat Girl: Loving the Skin You’re In by Tess Holliday
Big Girl: How I Gave Up Dieting and Got a Life by Kelsey Miller

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I'm IN LOVE with this snazzy cover and the unapologetic belly, leg rolls and arm folds that are included IN FULL AND SPLENDID COLOR! This bad-ass memoir is coming out May 8th and if you wanna get your hands on it ASAP you can pre-order now through the link in my bio on the second post! No pressure but, damn… I would highly recommend it;) ・・・ 🐳 ・・・ #LandwhaleTheBook includes pieces about PCOS, feeling like a hobbit, fat sex, new realizations about my childhood that came only through writing, Harry Potter roller coasters, honest thoughts about online hatred and why skimming emails will only leave you with mortifying regret. ・・・ 🐳 ・・・ I included experiences of traveling internationally while fat, @eatfellowhumans's indefinitely open invitation to join us in a threesome, the effects of online heroism and the complicated feels that comes from having three vaginas which will make sense once you read it. I promise. ・・・ 🐳 ・・・ I also wrote about the pros and cons of being fat, the complicated conversation around weight loss surgery AND as a bonus, I answer the Internet's most pressing question of all time: "Have you ever thought about dieting?" ・・・ 🐳 ・・・ Really though, all you need to know is that it's raw, honest, vulnerable, and if I'm lucky- occasionally hilarious. ・・・ 🐳 ・・・ THANK YOU FOR YOUR ENDLESS SUPPORT AND LOVE. I couldn't write #Landwhale without you + our community <-Fact. ❤️ #LandwhalesUnite

A post shared by Jes Baker (she/her) (@themilitantbaker) on Nov 7, 2017 at 4:41pm PST

(Fat) folks to follow

Your Fat Friend @yourfatfriend
Dani Adriana @iamdaniadriana
Megan Jayne Crabbe @bodyposipanda
Grace F @gracefvictory
Micelle Elman @scarrednotcared
Body Positive Memes by Michelle Elman @bodypositivememes
Jes Baker @themilitantbaker
Clare @becomingbodypositive
Jessamyn @mynameisjessamyn
Halle @___halle__
Stephanie Yeboah @nerdabouttown
Eff Your Beauty Standards @effyourbeautystandards

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Things I’ve learned; 1. Empowered women empower women. 2. Don’t stress gossip, drink your water and walk it off. 3. Friends that text you “thinking about you” are the ones who deserve your energy. 4. It’s okay to dip your chip twice. It’s worth it. 5. Do stuff that makes you vulnerable more often, vulnerability breeds honesty and strength follows. You want to be honest, these are your roots and your roots will ground you making you strong (in all aspects, even in weaknesses.) . Have a good day beans, love you so much, to the stars and back. How’s everyone doing this weekend?! Currently in Amsterdam never wanting to leave. 😩✈️🚲🏞 . #selflove #lifeisbeautiful #letsdothis #womensupportingwomen #womenempowerment #communityovercompetition #lovethesewomen

A post shared by K E N Z I E ⚡️ B R E N N A 💙 (@kenziebrenna) on Apr 8, 2018 at 11:30am PDT

Tess Holliday @tessholliday
Sassy @sassy_latte
Chloe Elliot @chloeincurve
Jada Sezer @jadasezer
Kenzie Brenna @kenziebrenna
Sofie Hagen @sofiehagendk
Aarti Olivia Dubey @curvesbecomeher
Valerie Sagun @biggalyoga
Dana @dothehotpants
Troy Solomon @abearnamedtroy
Simone Mariposa @simonemariposa
Jovanna Radic Eriksson @drawnbyjovanna
Callie Thorpe @calliethorpe
Melissa A. Fabello @fyeahmfabello
The Body is Not an Apology @thebodyisnotanapology

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More rolls than a bakery 😂🍞 I remember dickheads at school saying that to me when I was a size 12 and struggling with an ED. Now I’m in recovery and loving my body no matter what it looks like, as long as I’m healing and well and fucking living my best life – that’s all that matters 💁🏽‍♀️🙌🏽 #healgrowglow

A post shared by Grace (@gracefvictory) on Apr 5, 2018 at 11:58pm PDT

Websites to watch

Podcasts to play

Food Psych by Christy Harrison
Don’t Salt My Game by Laura Thomas
Love, Food by Julie Duffy Dillon

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Perspectives. I actually never posted the first picture. I took one look at it and decided that after months of dangerous crash dieting I still wasn't thin enough. I'd failed. I hadn't punished myself hard enough to wear that bikini and in my mind, that meant I didn't deserve to be out in the world at all. That's how every summer went, year by year. Missing out on all the days that should have been spent making memories in the light to shut myself indoors and focus everything on shrinking my body smaller. And every single year by the end of the summer, I'd take one look at myself and decide that it wasn't enough. It was never ever enough. I wish I could get that time back now, spend it on letting myself grow in a million beautiful ways instead of forcing myself to be small, smaller, smallest. I can't do that, but instead I can tell you what I wish I had been told back then: this is not your only option. You do not have to spend your life chasing weight loss. You do not have to punish yourself smaller. You do not have to put your life on hold until you can look in the mirror and see a body that you believe is worthy of being out in the world. You have ALWAYS been worthy of that. And you always will be, whether you're smaller, larger, or exactly as you are. So for anyone who needs it, this is for you: stop hiding your body away from the light. Go let yourself grow in all of your beautiful ways. I'll be making up for lost time and growing right beside you, and accepting my body unconditionally throughout it all. 💜💙💚🌈🌞

A post shared by Megan Jayne Crabbe 🐼 (@bodyposipanda) on Feb 3, 2018 at 1:28pm PST

An anti-diet, weight inclusive approach to health

Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program that Works – book by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch
Laura Thomas @laurathomasphd
The Rooted Project @rooted_project
Nicole @theembodiedjourney
HAES (Health At Every Size)
Fiona Willer
And the podcasts mentioned earlier!

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⚠️ Trigger warning, please don’t swipe right if you’re in a bad place with body image, exercise or restriction. 📆 Taking a brief interlude from the Non-Diet Advent Cal to bring you the latest in diet culture dumbfuckery. 😱Earlier this afternoon I ran into a shop and was STUNNED by this ludicrous @womenshealthuk cover (swipe to see but literally just to laugh at how ridiculous it is and not because it means anything.) 🙅‍♀️This cover is the EPITOME of diet culture. 🤦‍♀️ This is, of course, their yearly ‘transform’ issue, which promises to ‘shed kilos, strip fat, and build muscle’. 💭 But remember, going on a diet may transform your body (temporarily, diets don’t work long-term), but it’s not a cure for low self-esteem, it doesn’t help you cultivate body acceptance or good body image, and it can lead you down the path of disordered eating. 😈 That’s the lie of diet culture. It promises you things will be better after you change your body. 💩 But guys, even Beyonce shits. No amount of controlling your body will make you happy, and you still have to get up and go to work when you reach your target. You’ll still have relationship problems and family drama, and all the rest. Diets don’t solve problems. 🤔 Plus ‘sculpt killer abs’. But guys. YOU ALREADY HAVE ABS, they do an awesome job supporting your lower back and internal organs. 🙄 What this message is REALLY saying is “restrict your energy intake through disordered and restrictive eating & kill yourself in the gym, and don’t even think about having a social life”. 🙈You get the point, right? This magazine has nothing to do with health and everything to do with tearing down your self confidence and preying on your insecurities in order to sell you something, either the magazine itself or their strategically placed partnerships. 💰 Please save yourself £4 and instead consider donating to an eating disorder or mental health charity. 🌈 remember that movement isn’t punishment for eating. And you don’t owe it to anyone to conform to unrealistic aesthetics that someone else decided for you. 🍑 if working out and eating nutritious food are your jam then that’s awesome, but it should never be at the expense of…

A post shared by Laura Thomas, PhD, RNutr (@laurathomasphd) on Dec 11, 2017 at 8:22am PST

Who do you go to for body positive learning?

Since you made it to the end, you may as well follow me on Instagram – but their algorithm is a bit of a mystery, so you can sign up to the newsletter to not miss out on the best posts! ✨