The "Why" & "How" of Curating a Body Positive Social Media

Social media, like most powerful tools in this world, has the ability to do both immense harm and immense good.

It can be a space that is either toxic and leads to self-destructive habits, or a place for healing and forward-movement.

When I was caught in my binge-purge cycle, I had curated the accounts I followed to be used as fear motivation. I followed primarily stick thin models that boasted a perfect lifestyle in the hopes that every time I would open Instagram, shame would lead me straight to the gym and restrict caloric intake.

That, obviously, made everything worse; the posts on my feed quickly became incessant reminders of my daily failures.

The stretch marks, cellulite, and belly fat that I saw on my own body were nowhere to be seen on them, cementing my narrative that I was riddled with aesthetic shortcomings that needed to be “fixed” at all costs.

It was by no means the root cause of my issues, but I can say for sure that it worsened them – a phenomenon recognized by countless cross-regional studies.

But I didn’t actually see the problem until I came across one of my now-favorite body positivity influencers: Bree Lenehan.

Bree’s posts were nothing like I’d ever seen before.

Not only did she post photos with her tummy out and acne-clad skin but she also revealed the tricks that many “perfection-mongering” influencers use – from specific posing to camera angles to photo editing.

Even though, intuitively, it should’ve been obvious that the people I followed didn’t actually have perfect lives, it was easy to turn a blind eye to it until the truth was thrust at me.

Discovering Bree’s instagram led to a social media overhaul that ultimately played a significant role in my self-esteem rebuilding.

I’m not saying that it’s impossible to follow people like Kendall Jenner and Hailey Bieber without your confidence taking a hit. But I do urge everyone to ask themselves how safe and worthy their social media feeds really make them feel.

Does your Instagram make you feel ashamed and less than? Or does it make you feel empowered and whole?

The journey to healing is ultimately fueled by many building blocks and subtle shifts that conspire to help love and body acceptance come to the forefront once again. And this, I strongly believe, is part of that.

So, with that in mind, here are 5 life-enhancing, body positive social media accounts I’m grateful for having come across: