Body-positive Instagram model shuts down cruel crop-top bashers

Instagram body-positive model Noonie Regardless isn’t shy about showing off her body on her social media accounts, and her fans love her for it.

So, when a cruel meme appeared on another Instagram page featuring an image from a post she shared about learning to love her body, she wasn’t going to stand for it. She reposted the image — which read, “Leave the bralette and crop top wearing to us skinny girls,” paired with a sick face and whale emojis — and let everyone know exactly what she thought of the body-shaming.

She wrote, “No I don’t have the flat stomach to flex in a crop top/bralette but I have a muffin top to do so. I don’t know why people still body shame at this point. It’s quit pointless if you ask me. It’s just like making a fake profile to be someone you’re not. You don’t have to be skinny to rock a crop top or bralette. To my ladies with stomached wear whatever the hell you want and make every feel uncomfortable. As women we have to learn to build each other up instead of trying to break each other down. #stopbodyshaming”

Noonie told Yahoo that she “decided to share the post to let people know body-shaming is still real. We as people would think that since the world is changing that many things would stop and become played out, but that’s definitely not the case.”

What’s particularly disheartening about this meme is that the image was originally shared by Noonie to promote a positive message about loving your own body, including the curves that aren’t where they’re “supposed” to be.

She wrote, in a heartfelt post, “Growing up I use to be the skinniest. I ate so much but never would gain weight. All I would hear was, ‘she eats like crazy but her food goes no where.’ As I enter 2nd grade I began to get bigger and when I say big I mean big. I was already wearing a size XL in shirts and 20 in women pants. I use to hate myself for how I looked. I always would get made fun of even though I was the sweetest to any and everyone. I never judged people, I loved and accepted everyone for who they where as a person. I was put on diet pills, had a watch that told how many steps I took to help me keep track of me working out. I then feel in love with volleyball and it helped me a lot with loosing weight. As I got older I began to love myself more and more until I seen on social media how the IG famous girls looked so small and beautiful or thick and beautiful and then there was me. I had no big boobs to show, no big butt to show all I had was thighs and hips. My stomach still was over flowed and I wanted to look like the girls on IG. So I started drinking detox teas like they were and working out like they were and I thought to myself months later. Why are you trying to be someone you’re not, why can’t you accept who you are and love you. I finally found myself and I love who I have became. Yes I still eat unhealthy foods but I also eat healthy foods. I don’t eat out of control as much as I use to. Moral of the story is if you’re struggling with loving you’re self step back and point out the things you love about yourself and start accepting you as a person. Is it easy? F*** NO! But I promise you once you love who you are and accept who you are you will feel like the baddest bitch walking and not a negative goblin can stop you.”

As to why she felt this way, Noonie had a very mature response, explaining, “Responding to the cruel meme didn’t make me feel sad because as a person I love myself a lot and I have accepted myself for who I was years back. Don’t get me wrong I felt DISGUSTED! I felt this way because bashing people for their size is never okay. Being told ‘leave crop top wearing to us skinny girls,’ is definitely stupidity at it’s best. If crop tops were only made for skinny women they would only make it in a small – not medium, large, xl, etc.”

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