Tag: body image

Would a Broken Arm Cast a Pall on My High School Reunion?

Mary Novaria

If you had told me I’d be going to my high school reunion with a cast on my arm, I wouldn’t have believed it. After all, I was still in recovery mode and doing physical therapy following hip surgery a couple of months before. I could almost picture going to Read more

Mary Novaria

Mary Novaria's is a two-time Writer's Digest award winner whose work has been featured in Oprah Daily, Washington Post, Spirituality & Health, Cosmopolitan, Feminine Collective, FF2 Media, HuffPost, and elsewhere. She and her husband are empty nesters who live in the mountains of Colorado with their rescue dog, Rooney. She is currently working on a novel.

Seeing Myself Through My Own Eyes

Carly Zee

Fatty, fatty two by four, can’t fit through the kitchen door. Their names and faces are lost in history, but their words remain my constant truth. School yard chant buried deep under my skin, wrapped around my heart, that creeps through my brain, popping up like a boogey monster whenever Read more

Carly Zee

Carly Zee is a poet and writer and lover of the finer things in life — like good wines, dark chocolate, and erotica. She finds myself seeking pleasure over reason on far too many occasions, and will, in all likelihood, continue to do so. To come along for the ride, you can connect with Carly through https://carlyzee.wordpress.com/

It’s JUST a Measurement

SA Smith

If we allow the weight of that emotional baggage to tie us to that measurement, then it can do damage, then it means something, then it can hurt us emotionally, physically, however we choose it to.

But wait, it’s just a measurement.

SA Smith

SA Smith has always loved the magical life. She is the bestselling Amazon author of FOREVER, her four part young adult paranormal romance series. She is an advocate for women of all shapes and sizes. Believing that we are all enough just as we are, and needing to spread that word far and wide. Having been diagnosed with CRPS over 12 years ago, SA also uses her writing to increase social awareness of the disease. Writing is her passion. She often tells friends that writing is a journey for her. It’s like spending time with friends. "I just follow my characters along on their adventures, like a fly on the wall, and see where they take me." SA currently lives in Florida with her best friend/husband and their one son.

Too Fat to Drown

Paakhi Bhatnagar

A distorted girl, too round around the edges no numbing mind still embedding into the malleable mush that her fat, clammy fingers cannot hold yet. But let us still stuff an oversized expectation of casual conformities, forgotten deformities into the thick folds of her feeble soul. Running and glazing, two Read more

Paakhi Bhatnagar

Paakhi Bhatnagar is a student from India and an avid reader of historical fiction. She is a passionate feminist and blogs about current politics and feminist issues. She also possess the uncanny ability of turning everything into a debate.

Daughter, I Failed You Today

Shelby Eckard

Daughter, I failed today. I’ve been a hypocrite. You may only be 3, but I work every day to teach you that your body is your own. Your body is more than the size it takes up or the shape it’s formed into. I want you to know your body Read more

Shelby Eckard

Shelby is a mother of two living in the burbs of Atlanta who works as a Fitness Nutrition and Weight Loss Specialist (NASM) and spends her free time trying to get over her break up with Carbs, (I miss you, Pizza Joe. Call me.) making it through the hours between coffee and wine, pretending to be cool on Instagram and Facebook, and fighting the good fight in her head between “ I wanna look good naked” and “ I eat cake in bed”. She blogs at www.survivingshelby.com and covers topics such as positive body image, PCOS, eating disorder recovery, and humor. She is really, just a woman trying to get her sh*t together.

The Weight of Being a Woman

Hannah Forkel-Matte

As I sit here six months pregnant, I ponder about my life and what my existence has become. So many women have told me how beautiful the gift of life is, and “just wait until you look at your baby for the first time,” how magical it will be. It’s Read more

Hannah Forkel-Matte

Hannah Forkel-Matte is a writer and legal assistant in Evansville, Indiana. She graduated in 2014, with her Bachelor's Degree in English from the University of Southern Indiana. She mainly writes to share her experiences through non-fiction work, but also dabbles in fiction when a solid idea strikes.

Why You Should Love Your Big Butt

Julie Anderson

The other day I found myself working out next to a woman who was as tall as she was wide. At one point, I turned to her, and said: “Don’t you find working out boring?” She looked at me and gave me an emphatic “NO.” She is a self-confessed gym junkie, Read more

Julie Anderson

Julie Anderson is the Creator and Publisher of Feminine Collective. Julie was inspired to create this safe place for women to share their secrets, desires, triumphs and pain as the antithesis of what mainstream media offers women today. In her column Pursuit of Perfection, she explores the importance of rectifying the balance of inner and outer beauty through essays, poems and articles on self-esteem, shame, family, and self- acceptance.

The Things You Cannot See

M.L. Flickinger

I am no longer “too thin.” My clothes are no longer hanging from the bones protruding from my hips. I do not count ice cubes and broth as “meals” anymore. That does not mean that this addiction does not haunt me still. The disorder craves control. It is here with Read more

M.L. Flickinger

Aside from writing, Melissa is an advocate for mental health and wellness - fighting against the stigma of mental illness. Focusing on mindfulness, anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, OCD, eating disorders, ADHD, addiction, PTSD, emotional abuse, domestic violence, trauma, and recovery. She has a slight (okay, huge) obsession with coffee and all things pumpkin.