It’s just starting to heat up and summer is right around the corner. This realization can be both wonderful and stressful for many people. On one hand, yay warm weather! It’s finally that time of year where the sun comes to stay. On the other hand, a sinking feeling of worry and anxiety starts to set in because you realize it’s also swimsuit weather.

I don’t know one person who doesn’t like to go swimming, so the act of actually wearing a swimsuit isn’t an issue. It’s the fact that so many people are hesitant to because they are not fully comfortable embracing their bodies in a swimsuit. This used to be me.

So many influences tell us how we’re “supposed” to look in a swimsuit. Skinny legs, no belly fat, smooth flawless skin, toned arms, perky butt, and no jiggly skin anywhere.

Basically, I’m supposed to look like I did when I was 13.

Swimsuit models are glorified everywhere, and pictures of them actually make me uncomfortable because of how much people look to these pictures for inspiration. It’s as if this is the only way women can look like to be attractive. It’s almost to the point where you feel unworthy of wearing a swimsuit if you don’t wear a small size bottom and a large size top (for big boobs of course. Because it’s totally realistic when the rest of your body has no other trace of fat).

These models are conventionally attractive, and nobody will deny that. For so long, I lived thinking that I will never be worthy of wearing a bikini unless I looked like them. No matter how fit I got, I would never look like them. I have too many memories crying in front of a dressing room mirror in a swimsuit, wondering why I couldn’t look like those models.

A few months ago, it hit me. I would never look like those girls in the magazines. First off, photoshop. But most importantly, I live a busy life. I don’t have time to work out constantly or always make sure I’m eating the right thing. These girls work out for a living. It’s their job. Their entire lives revolve around looking good.

So instead of working my body to a breaking point, I developed my own method of attaining a "bikini-worthy body." It was the simplest thing I've ever done.

1. Buy a bikini

I like buying my swimsuits from Target. When the warm weather comes, there are so many cute designs there, and it's honestly hard to just pick out one.

2. Put in on your body

If you can manage to put this new wonderful suit on, then voila! You now have the perfect bikini body. Girls, you're perfect, beautiful, and wonderful just the way you are. It's 2018, by now it should be apparent that the models we looked up to aren't all that. Self-love, self-love, self-love.