I grew up being told to put some meat on my bones throughout my entire childhood. Once I hit puberty, I was shocked when I suddenly had this pooch towards the bottom of my stomach — my flat stomach was gone. It's taken me years to come to terms with the fact that it's actually healthy to not have a flat stomach.

This pooch is a protective layer of fat for our uterus and ovaries.

It's still not normalized in today's society and some of the Instagram models and trainers keep trying to show some workout routines to get rid of this pooch. We as women need to realize that we need this pooch to protect our organs. Men don't have these organs, therefore, they don't need this pooch.

Sure it can get annoying to have this when you look down in the morning one day when you're in the midst of the most hormonal state you think you'll ever be in, but it's there for our protection. This pooch will cause rolls when sitting as well as bloat when it's that time of the month which makes us feel gross — but there's no need.

We need to work together to normalize this and stop the stigma of having a flat stomach — it's not healthy and it's not safe.

We need this in order to protect our organs. Yeah, it might not be ideal but nothing about being a woman really is but we are also meant to deal with these things because we are strong. We can handle these challenges and more that life throws at us.