Tess Holliday literally wrote the book on body confidence—it’s called The Not So Subtle Art of Being A Fat Girl: Loving the Skin You’re In. However, even the poster girl for body positivity has moments of self-doubt, and she also has a bold trick for overcoming those bad moments quickly.
In an interview with Shape, the 32-year-old model, who has 1.5 million followers on Instagram, admitted that she is occasionally plagued with lingering insecurities about the way that she looks. Holliday has self-esteem issues just like the rest of us: “Sometimes I love it all and sometimes I pick everything apart,” she admitted. Specifically, she’s struggling with changes to her body after having a baby.
“Right now I’m having a hard time loving my stomach, because I had a kid a year and a half ago,” she explained in the interview, adding: “My body is still not quite the same because I had a C-section.” Holliday is hardly the first new mom to feel self-conscious about changes in her appearance after having a baby, but it’s her strategy for tackling insecurities head-on and overcoming them that feels different.
Rather than trying to cover-up or hide areas of her body she is concerned about, Holliday does the complete opposite. “In those moments when I’m having a hard time, I’ll try to wear something that scares me. I’ll wear a crop top if I’m not loving my stomach because it kind of forces me to pay attention to it and to love it, really,” she said.
Anyone who has body hang-ups (most of us, really), knows that Holliday’s advice to flaunt your insecurities rather than hide them can feel impossible. But, if it works for her, we’re all for it.
