On August 16th, Chrissy Teigen’s snap about her stretch marks brought on a wave of responses from fans and media, and the best part about it was that it was all positive criticism. Granted, it could be due to the simple fact that this is Chrissy Teigen we are talking about, but it still mattered that she embraced her stretch marks on such a huge platform. It is pretty obvious as to why Chrissy Teigen’s Snapchat got so much positive feedback, but what is not so obvious is the actual impact it has on girls like me with thick thunder thighs and stretch marks to match.

When I was younger, I didn’t have a care in the world about what I was wearing. It wasn’t until I entered high school that I started to feel criticized for my weight, and what my mother jokingly called “thunder thighs.” It wasn’t my stomach where the weight decided to hang out; it was always concentrated towards my thighs. I don’t remember reading much in magazines or the media about negative criticism on stretch marks, but I must have seen it somewhere because it was ingrained in my mind that I needed to hide my legs. I would still wear dresses in the summer, but they would always be long. I would occasionally wear shorts, but I would always feel uncomfortable and nervous about being in public with them. At 23 years old, I feel more confident than I ever have in my entire life, yet these thunder thighs are still my enemy. I can wear a crop top without shame, but shorts still cause an anxiety that I have not overcome.

Chrissy Teigen has not made me any less nervous about going out in public wearing something that exposes my thighs, and she hasn’t internationally abolished expectations of beauty on women. Tomorrow, magazines and tabloids will continue to publicly demean women for “imperfections” that are one hundred percent natural. Tomorrow, many women will still have their insecurities that have been harbored over the years—insecurities that that cannot be permanently altered based on a single Snapchat photo. But, maybe some of us will wake up tomorrow feeling a little bit more confident because we saw an amazing woman, with a big voice, tell the world that stretch marks aren’t so bad. Maybe some women will wake up after this, look in the mirror and think, “If Chrissy Teigen doesn’t care, then why do I?”

As I said at the beginning, perhaps Chrissy Teigen got a positive response because she is Chrissy Teigen. Perhaps if it was someone else, someone less relevant, they would not receive as much love. But I don't want the world to ignore what a positive impact Chrissy's Snapchat photo will have on women who follow her. Thanks to this small moment when Chrissy Teigen snapped her stretchmarks, there may be some girls and women who will finally take a day off from criticizing themselves and say, “I just don’t care.”