Health

This Fitness Instructor's 'Honest' Photo Makes an Important Point About Body Image

January 18th 2017

"Good or bad angles don't change your worth."

Anna Victoria, a popular fitness model on Instagram, shared these words in a side-by-side photo post that highlights how the same body can look drastically different from certain angles:

"Me 1 percent of the time vs. 99 percent of the time," Victoria wrote. "And I love both photos equally."

Victoria added that she was recently inspired by a woman's article about refusing to accept her body "flaws," as the woman does not view these so-called imperfections as "flaws":

"[The article sends] such a powerful message that our belly rolls, cellulite, stretch marks are nothing to apologize for, to be ashamed of, or to be obsessed with getting rid of!" Victoria continued. "As I'm getting older, I have cellulite and stretch marks that aren't going away, and I welcome them. They represent a life fully lived (for 28 years so far :)) and a healthy life and body at that."

Her message has more than 290,000 Instagram likes and has resonated with a number of users:

InstagramInstagram - instagram.com

Others have highlighted how different photo angles impact appearance on social media.

In February 2016, fitness Instagram star Jessica Pack shared side by side self portraits taken just moments apart to show that shifting one's posture can completely change the look of someone's body. "You can show your best angles and hide your flaws but at the end of the day what we chose to showcase is a reflection of ourselves," Pack wrote:

"On the left my posture is poor, I'm pushing my belly out as far as possible, I adjusted my bottoms to show my gross, unsightly and horrid love handles," Pack wrote. "On the right I'm standing straight and comfortably. I'm lightly flexing and I've adjusted my bottoms to hide my love handles. I'm thankful for bikini bottoms that now fit well and hide these but I'm also trying to show that they still exist quite a bit and that not everything we see meets the eye here on social media."

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