You Have to Read This Model's Inspiring Message Following the 2016 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

Irish model Thalia Heffernan is addressing the elephant in the room after the 2016 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. Heffernan posted a stunning photo on Instagram of the bare side of a women’s torso and the natural rolls in her skin. On the skin was written, “Still Beautiful.”

“In light of the floods of images of the stunningly beautiful Victoria Secret models all over my timeline I can’t help but think of any young impressionable girls who think that they’re not beautiful because they see a different reflection in the mirror,” Heffernan wrote. Heffernan addressed the lack of body diversity in the show and how that can impact the many young women who don’t look like the Victoria’s Secret Angels. “Like an athlete, these girls train hard and dehydrate before this show every year, it’s an unobtainable image to strive towards. Not even those stunning girls look like that 365 days a year, prep is key and a crucial part of the run up to shows like that,” she explained. “Please, if you’re feeling down and out, I know what it’s like and this image that I found online really struck me. No matter what, you are still beautiful. Your shape or size or features do not define you! No one can ever be you. You only come around once in a lifetime, so don’t ever be ashamed to be who you are. Everybody is beautiful. Every mind is wonderful. Every one is a miracle,” the curly-haired beauty concluded.

Her fans are loving her take on things. “You are so right Thalia, the beauty within is what matters, not the packaging , and you my dear have it in spades,” one follower wrote. “Love this! So glad you are speaking out about this,” said another.

Of course, there were some haters. One person took it a little too far and judged Heffernan for possibly promoted obesity. “In a world where obesity is an epidemy (sic), promoting this kind of stuff is dangerous. Nobody says we should all look like supermodels but the fat you see outside you can find it inside around the organs jeopardising(sic) the health of the individual,” proclaimed the user. Unsurprisingly, Heffernan wrote back eloquently. “Obesity is as much a disease of the mind as it is the body. As are other eating disorders. What I’m saying is to learn to love yourself. That’s the most important step towards health of mind and body,” she wrote.

Unfortunately, what she is saying is all too true. A 2013 study conducted at Connecticut College looked at the Twitter reactions to the 2011 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show and found that vulnerable viewers could experience negative affect, or even engage in harmful behaviors, during or after viewing the show or others like it.

But many insist there’s been a change in the models’ appearances over the last few years, and that this new class of models including Gigi Hadid and Kendall Jenner are not as emaciated as the VS models once were, but athletic and strong. “They’re beautiful and have so much personality, in fashion people don’t want to see hunger now, you want to see strong girls that actually have something to say. Gigi and Kendall are so strong and powerful and so, so smart and that’s what you want in girls to inspire the new generation,” Balmain creative director Olivier Rousteing told Vogue at this year’s show.

What do you think? Have you seen a positive change in the way the models look nowadays?

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