A few months ago, an Australian-based model named Georgia Gibbs posted what she thought was a normal photo of her and her best friend, Kate Wasley, on Instagram. What she soon realized is that commenters would take to Instagram to accuse her of photoshopping the image to make her friend look bigger (okay, people are crazy, right?) and the photo would go viral.
Shocked at this reaction, the besties did what all badasses do, and created a joint Instagram account promoting body positivity. Their account, Any.body_co, shares photos of them together, or those to serve body positive inspiration, and attempts to remind us that size really doesn’t – or shouldn’t – matter.
In a short amount of time, the account has blown up, and now has 70K+ followers. I’ve actually been seeing and liking these photos because I thought they send a great message – and once I dug into the story a bit more, I had to share it.
Here’s my take on it. These girls make a really startling observation that we instinctively compare people to each other, in photos and just in general, and make size such an issue (case in point the original photo that went viral and got nasty comments). But they also make another point – we shouldn’t be. What’s wrong with two best friends having a good time, who happen to be different sizes? Absolutely nothing. And they’re putting that different lens on their photos – one that encourages people to stop comparing the two girls’ bodies next to each other, which is just amazing.
I can relate to this a lot because my best friend, Lauren, is an extremely fit person. And while it’d be very easy to compare my body to hers, it’d also be silly, because we’re different people and there’s really no reason to. We both have our own journeys when it comes to our bodies, which is important to celebrate, not compare. And similar to Kate and Georgia, my best friend embraces and celebrates my body and encourages my healthy lifestyle and fitness, and I do the same, which is all I can really ask for.
It’s really easy for people to get stuck comparing ourselves, or comparing others we see, specifically when it comes to size and body image. I challenge you to see people as more than a size, more than a weight, and just see them for who they are. We’re all unique and on our different paths in life for various reasons, and honestly, our sizes and shapes have absolutely nothing to do with that.
Keep killing it, Georgia and Kate!
Photo credit: Any.body_co
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