Being a plus size woman in a world where skinnily is beautiful and expected has always been a tough thing for me. I grew up being teased about my weight and being scrutinized by others for what I ate, drank, and did with my spare time.

Wherever I turned I heard people talking about how “fat girls can’t wear that” or “she looks so disgusting in that outfit." Everyone else seemed so much more concerned with what my body looked like than me…until I started to care a little too much.

My body was never looked at as beautiful, so I always thought it wasn’t. I figured that since such a large amount of people were complaining about social media about how big girls look disgusting when they’re wearing tight clothes against their bodies, I just shouldn’t wear them.

If you looked on any social media, you’ll find thousands of people rallying together and agreeing that women above a certain clothing size shouldn’t wear things like mini skirts, crop tops, or anything that has cutouts or exposing skin. But who decided that this was okay?

With the summer season coming, swimsuits and short shorts are all everyone is talking about. It’s only March and I have seen four articles on the internet, including one on the very popular website, Buzzfeed, telling women that they “cannot” wear a bikini if they’re under the category of plus size in clothing. Whether or not the title of the article was meant to be sarcastic, which I do believe that was the intent, it was still offensive to me and other plus size women who struggle with this on a regular basis.

Women of larger sizes are expected to completely cover up over the summer - capris instead of shorts, no tops that will expose any fat or stretch marks, bathing suits that cover as much of the body as physically possible. It's like there's a rule book when it comes to plus-sized women's fashion created by the skinny people in this world, and we had absolutely no say in it at all.

And for some reason, everything that the skinny population deems fit for us to wear has an ugly pattern, making it humanly impossible for a plus size woman to actually look attractive to society. If the weight wasn’t enough, the outfits society thinks plus size people should wear puts them over the unattractive edge.

I thought we were moving towards the world that appreciates and supports body positivity? What happened to women building each other up and giving each other the support they need to be happy instead of tearing them down and telling them they can’t do something?

I’m done letting someone else decide what is okay and what is not okay to put on my own body. I'm done letting other people who I don't even know be such a huge influence on how I dress and what is supposed to look good on my own body. It's my body, so it's my decision, not their's.

Last I checked, there is no law telling me what I can and cannot wear on my own body. Last I checked, there is not one person on this planet who can tell me that I can’t wear a bikini to the beach if I want to and feel comfortable and confident in it. Last I checked, I’m allowed to love my body. And that’s exactly what I’m going to do, whether you want me to or not, whether you think I should or not.