lifestyle

"I have stretch marks, and I wear a bikini. Deal with it."

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

This is the best bikini photo we’ve seen in a long time.

Rachel Hollis just became our new poster person, because of one, unremarkable bikini photo.

A photo of Hollis, taken on holiday with her husband and kids, has gone around the world because she has (gasp) stretch marks.

The mum-of-three admits she tried to have her husband take a photo of her in the bikini that looked “posey, pretty”, but after about “a hundred photos”, she said she started laughing and this was the brilliant result.

Rachel and the photo that had us cheering. Image via Facebook.

Hollis captioned the image:

“I have stretch marks and I wear a bikini. I have a belly that’s permanently flabby from carrying three giant babies and I wear a bikini. My belly button is saggy… (which is something I didn’t even know was possible before!!) and I wear a bikini. I wear a bikini because I’m proud of this body and every mark on it. Those marks prove that I was blessed enough to carry my babies and that flabby tummy means I worked hard to lose what weight I could. I wear a bikini because the only man who’s opinion matters knows what I went through to look this way. That same man says he’s never seen anything sexier than my body, marks and all. They aren’t scars ladies, they’re stripes and you’ve earned them. Flaunt that body with pride!”

We can practically hear the cheers from women around the world. We think they would look something like this:

 

Hollis justified posting the photo – not that she needed to at all – and said she’s never felt better about herself.

“I thought, it’s not going to get better than this,” she told Today.com.

 

Related: Why hundreds of women are sharing photos of their stretch marks on social media.

“My body is never going to be smaller than it is right now, so if there’s ever time to show off your belly, this is probably it.”

Rachel with her family. Image via Instagram.

Her refreshing attitude obviously resonates with people, as her photo has been viewed a cool 10 million times.

“[My body is] never ever going to be like a Victoria’s Secret model,” she said.

“But I think I look good, and my husband wants to make out with me, so I’m doing something right.”

Damn straight, Hollis. Damn. Freaking. Straight.