In today's world, weight is such a touchy subject for understandable reasons. The media inundates us with opinions on the topic more so than anything else, albeit mostly in a subtle manner. Traditional models are all incredibly thin, advertising for anything remotely feminine uses skinny women, and many stores don't even carry sizes for anyone above this "ideal." In our society, we like to pretend that fat women don't exist or aren't interested in fitting any mainstream idea of beauty. Men are told in almost every capacity to never talk about their wives' weights. Women are constantly shown reassuring each other that they aren't fat, they're beautiful. Overall, the main theme is that fat shouldn't be talked about because it's inherently wrong.

Well.

I'm fat and I'm proud. I'm fat and I'm beautiful. I'm fat and I'm never going to stop reminding people that I'm perfectly fine.

Being fat is something that people need to realize is just another facet of a person. It's not a defining factor, it's not the be-all-end-all of who they are. It's just a thing. It's also not a bad thing (and before someone call bullshit and says it's unhealthy, let me remind you that someone else's personal health is absolutely none of your business). I weigh 220 pounds. Yep. I do. And guess what? I'm still fabulous. My Instagram is still full of selfies of my beautiful self. I still rock dresses and skinny jeans and crop tops. The amount of fat on my body has no effect on these things and it shouldn't ever have an effect on anyone else, either. I'm also healthy (ya know, minus the Crohn's disease) and that's coming from my gastro, who has bloodwork run on me every 8 weeks.

I'm tired of listening to people try to tell me, "You're not fat, you're pretty!" I'm tired of having people tell me I'm not plus sized when I complain about the lack of available cute clothing to me. I'm tired of having to fight for equal representation in the world. This narrative needs to end. The average American woman wears a 16 and it's time we stop limiting the fashion industry to the women below this number. It's time to stop equating thin with pretty and fat with ugly. Skinny, fat, thin, wide, short, tall. It doesn't matter. If we can love puppies of all sizes, it's about damn time we start loving people of all sizes. And it's absolutely time we start loving our OWN bodies, at whatever size they may be.