I firmly believe you can show appreciation for what your own body has to offer without shaming anybody else's. So if you decided to be offended by anything I'm about to say, know that this isn't about you. This is about loving what I have, not putting down what I don't.

Every time I ride a bike, I look down and smile because I love how thick my thighs are. They accentuate my hips, which sit atop them like the bottom half of an hourglass. Yes, my waist is thin, but it's middle man between a pair of cantaloupes and a pair of fire hydrants.

I like how my thighs form a little bulge at the end of my shorts. A thighbrow, if you will. They fill out my jeans. They rub against each other. No gap here, just the way I like it.

Until this past year, I always saw myself as the girl who was bigger than everyone else. I hated the way my kilt, a part of my high school uniform, fell on my body. Every other girl's was short. And no matter how much they protested, I couldn't get it out of my head that they looked good in it and I didn't.

I put on a lot of weight my first year and a half of college. I let the number on the scale define me. I thought that meant everything. The mixture of depression and a few too many drinks landed me in a body I hated.

Then I made the decision to change my body. I wanted to "look like everyone else." But in all honesty, what the hell does that mean?

There is no looking like everyone else. There's looking how you look and there's how somebody else looks. In reality, how can one be better than the other? If the store sells your size, then you're supposed to be wearing that brand. No questions asked.

Anyway, now I'm back to the weight I was in high school, but my body looks and feels very different than it did back then. Now, I have a healthy body.

I don't question what I eat, because I eat what makes me happy. I dress my body in ways that make it look good, which in turn makes me feel good. I'm not afraid to show a little skin, because I no longer think that's limited to one kind of body. Again, if the store sells it in your size, then you're meant to wear it.

My freshman year of high school, we had to get up in front of our health class and say what our favorite thing about our body was. I was lacking body confidence so severely that I said my eyebrows. Because I truly didn't think anything else was worthy of being noted. If you asked me that question now, I would undoubtedly say my thighs.

I think my point in all of this is you need to get your mind to a place where you can look at what you've got and respect it. You've done whatever it is you've done to look the way you do. Whether that be dressing it up, adorning it with tattoos and piercings, building up visible muscle, the list goes on and on.

It took me six years to be able to look at the mirror and decide something more than the hair on my face was my favorite thing about my physical body. A lot of times, thighs aren't a woman's favorite thing to harp on. But another woman's story isn't my story. Neither is her body.

So even though the stereotypical societal expectation might be slim thighs with a gap in between, I like the muscle that keeps mine wide. I like the thickness that stretches my shorts. I like using the hashtag #ThickThighsSaveLives.

Fuck a societal expectation. Scroll through Instagram and see those models with all different kinds of bodies. Find which one fits your vibe and give her a follow instead of making yourself feel sad because you're following a woman with a body that doesn't fit your brand. Putting yourself down isn't doing you any good.

No matter if you want to be thicker or thinner, the bottom line is that your body is your home. So start treating it like one. Make it a safe place to live, not a place where you feel like a stranger.