By: Jennifer McMillen Smith, MSSA, LISW-S, Division of Infectious Disease and medically reviewed by Ann Avery, Infectious Disease Physician at Metrohealth Medical Center
It’s soooo important to love our bodies and nourish them both physically and emotionally. 💞
Sometimes it can be hard in a society that values a certain body type and criticizes those who don’t fit that mold. Social media only makes it harder. 😩
First, we gotta take a step back. What does it even mean to be body positive?🤷🏽♂️ It literally means to have a positive view of your body, including what you may perceive to be flawed. While traditionally body positivity has focused on normalizing all shapes and sizes, we want to take it a step further. We want to normalize ALL bodies: shapes, sizes, colors, abilities, age, and beyond. ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🖤🤎🤍
Our bodies are powerful. So let’s use our bodies to take back control of our social media feeds.💪🏽 YOU get to decide who is worth following and who isn't. Unfollow negativity and flood your feed with ✨POSITIVITY✨. Don’t worry, we did the hard part for you and pulled together a diverse list of people who represent all different types of bodies. You’re welcome. 😉
Halle Hathaway | @halle_hathaway
We’ll start by giving some love to a fellow Ohioan! Halle is a bulimia survivor and a proud queer woman.🏳️🌈Follow her for positive affirmations, her awesome dance moves, and cameos of her cat Jagger.😻
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Dexter Mayfield | Instagram | Tik Tok
Dexter is also here to bring some dance moves with a side of body positivity to your life.🕺🏾
Check him out for some content that will make you want to move your body, too! No better way to appreciate your body than to shake it to your favorite jams. 💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻
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Nabela Noor | Instagram | Tik Tok
If you like a beautifully curated feed with your body positivity, look no further than Nabela. This entrepreneur has turned self-love into a career of empowering others to love themselves.💖
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Zach Miko | @zachmiko
Body positivity influencers are growing in popularity, but Zach Miko was one of the first plus-size male models in the industry. Today, he’s still driving the conversation around body image and it’s a convo we are sooooo here for. 👏🏻
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Kenny Ethan Jones | @kennyethanjones &
Megan Jayne Crabbe | @meganjaynecrabbe
These two influencers stand out on their own but are also in a relationship. Talk about a power👏🏾 couple!👏🏾 As partners, they contribute a lot to the culture of body positivity. Kenny got started as an activist after being the first trans man featured in a period campaign. Megan is a feminist, author, and content creator. Follow them both to majorly uplift your feed! You’ll thank us later. 😘
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Jillian Mercado | @jillianmercado
Jillian is a Latinx, queer QUEEN 👑 with muscular dystrophy who is taking the modeling world by storm, all while changing the narrative on what it means to be body positive with a disability. Can we get a HELLLL YEAHHH?!
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Kelvin Davis | Instagram | Tik Tok
When it comes to Kelvin, you’ll come for the body positivity content, stay for the smiles.😁😁😁 His award-winning smile and positive energy is catching, even through the screen!
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Amy Pence-Brown | @idaho_amy
Amy’s here to let you know that body positivity is for all 👏🏻ages👏🏻. Amy is a mother and an artist who is proud of her body and uses it to create body-positive works of art. 🎨📸
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Katrina Nichole | Instagram | TikTok
Last but not least, Katrina comes through with some inspiration for your next workout! 🏋🏾♀️She’s here to prove that exercise is about being healthy, not necessarily about losing weight (though it can be if that’s your goal!).
@thekatrinanichole@shein_official has me feeling like a bad b*tch in this bikini & coverup! ##plussizefashion ##bikini ##fyp♬ Bundles (feat. Taylor Girlz) - Kayla Nicole
If you’ve made it this far without falling down a body positivity social media rabbit hole then congrats! You’re stronger than us. We literally spent hours scrolling through body positivity content before we wrote this blog but by the end of it our self-esteem had EXPLODED💥 (in a good way 😉). That’s what we call a win-win!
Do you have other accounts you like to follow? DM us on social media. Until then, happy scrolling! 📲