No, I am not posting any nudes here. No, I am definitely not saying that I have taken any nudes before.

What I’m trying to explain is why all girls, even boys, should take nudes of themselves.

Hear me out.

In seventh grade, I distinctly remember sitting in a makeshift classroom on the stage in our gymnasium. The lighting was dim and we were forced to sit girl-boy-girl-boy. It was the dreaded health class that taught me nothing except how awkward it feels talking about boy’s erections as a 13-year-old.

The lesson one day were the dangers on taking nude photos. We heard horror stories about how a girl’s nudes got leaked from an ex-boyfriend and she ended up ending her own life due to the turmoil.

The discussion after that lesson with friends was how I would never, ever take nude photos because I didn’t want them to end up on Google and ruin my reputation for any colleges or jobs.

But in reality, my nudes would never get that famous that they’d pop up in a simple Google search; nobody cares that much.

As I grew up, that was my only knowledge of nudes. In high school, when I heard girl’s nudes got passed around in a huge group chat filled with guys in my grade, it helped support the idea of being against taking any nudes.

That’s the common thought based upon nudes.

You’re told never to take them or else they definitely will get leaked and your life will definitely get ruined.

But what if you never share your nudes?

Yes, celebrities whose nudes get leaked don’t always share them, their computers can get hacked, but nobody is going to go around hacking a twenty-year-old’s laptop to find random nudes.

If you never share your nudes, then your eyes are the only ones who see them. In a photo, there it is, your naked body in a position that makes you feel beautiful, sexy, fierce, proud or however it may make you feel.

You know you’ve had an inner battle with yourself for years over your body. You hate your cellulite, you hate your rolls, your stretch marks; they’re all enemies crawling over your body. You try to hide them on a typical day but for a moment, you embrace them. Every bit of your hated imperfections are a part of you and it all comes together to create a simple photograph that breaks through how society tells you to feel about your skin.

You take a nude on a good day. Your hair fell perfectly, your butt is looking on point. You feel great, for once, about your body and all that it is. You wish there was somebody to send the nudes to but you have nobody and you’re too scared.

So just take it.

Document that time in your day where your confidence is at an all-time high, or document when you’re feeling low about yourself.

You just got a cute set of underwear nobody is going to see, so take a picture because nobody else has to see it for you to feel validated.

Validate yourself by taking that photo.

When you look back at it, you’ll smile remembering how great you felt about yourself at that time. That photo will take you back and give you reasons to look in the mirror and scream, “Damn! I am hot shit!”

Feel no shame about that seemingly deadly nude. That photo symbolizes so much.

You’ve embraced your body in its most vulnerable and true state. A state which not many have witnessed and you find hard to be in, but now you’ve accepted it and you love it.

You don’t need anybody to send that nude to. Love your body. Document your body all you want. That naked body is who you are. It’s a celebration when anybody can love themselves, even if it’s for a one second click of an iPhone camera.