“I got my first stretch marks not during pregnancy (ironically, I still have none on my stomach), but when I was ten years old. Looking back at pictures of myself as a child at that time, it is hard to believe, as I was not considered overweight by any means. The stretch marks showed up on my thighs and my backside as my curves began to take shape at this early age. As if the physical marks weren’t enough to make a young girl start to become self-conscious, it was around this time that older boys in school with me started making comments about my body. Comments inappropriate for a ten-year-old girl by anyone’s standards. Over the next several decades I have finally come to embrace those curves and accept them as part of who I am. In fact, those curves are something my husband absolutely loves about me. I try now, as a mother, to talk about my body with kind words, in hopes that my sons will grow up to be respectful of all women, no matter their shape.”

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