Representation matters— when one type, shape, size, or skin tone is painted as the norm, it’s easy for us to feel inadequate for not fitting into it. For so long we’ve been held captive by unrealistic standards in the media, but in the transition to social media it’s only gotten more toxic. Especially in quarantine, social media is one of our biggest windows to the outside world; it can color our perspective and impact what we spend the most time thinking about. If you spend all day seeing images of bodies edited to unrealistic standards, it could end up making you feel bad about yourself. On the other hand, if you take care to fill your feed with positive voices, diverse bodies and lots of love, that’s what will fill your head. We should be able to strive for health and wellness without hating the way we look or our bodies’ natural shapes and quirks. Here are 14 Instagram accounts that promote body positivity and self love to help shield you from online toxicity.
1. Enam Asiama
A strong voice for inclusivity, Enam Asiama works every day to promote a definition of beauty that includes people of all shapes, sizes, races, and orientations. She’s a model and a plus-size advocate devoted to using her platform to show her own joy, beauty and radical self love.
2. Grace F Victory
Grace Victory makes honesty and vulnerability a priority on her feed, sharing body positivity, candor about plus-size styling, and, lately, her thoughts on the ways that her body changes with pregnancy. She’s also the founder of How To Heal Holistically, an account focused on helping people see the little mental adjustments they can make to be happier and healthier.
Whether it’s for her immaculately designed outfits or for her uplifting, empowering sense of body confidence and positivity, you’ll always be grateful for Stephanie Yeboah’s content to show up in your feed.
4. Jessamyn Stanley
Jessamyn Stanley is working hard to defy the stereotype that fitness equals thinness. If you’re a yoga fan, you’re going to want to follow her; she runs a practice called The Underbelly and hosts online classes for all body types and experience levels, sometimes even hosting Q&As afterwards to make sure folks get the most out of her teaching.
5. Alex Light
Alex Light’s content focuses on dismantling many of the things we’ve been taught to believe about our bodies, from championing intuitive eating to normalizing hip dips. Alex’s body positivity is a remedy to the “thinspiration” that can pop up on our timelines; she’s here to remind you that hating your body is almost never just about losing a couple of pounds.
6. Sonny Turner
A style icon and champion for diversity and extended sizing, Sonny is a great person to follow for a daily dose of body positivity, fashion advice, and beautiful photos.
7. Jules Von Hep
Jules Von Hep wants you to know that body positivity is for men too, and that unrealistic beauty standards don’t just affect women. With regular posts about authenticity and kindness, this celebrity tanning expert is trying to make the world a better, softer place.
8. Chessie King
With her striking vulnerability, kindness, and humor, Chessie King’s content encourages you to be thankful for and love your body using her own relationship with her body as an example.
9. Megan Crabbe
Megan Crabbe, aka Bodyposipanda, has been on the forefront of the bosy positivity movement on Instagram for years, showing followers that you can have a full, happy life post eating-disorder. She’s here to give you a daily dose of joy and acceptance, whether it’s by showing off an immaculately composed outfit or having a quick dance party with her sister.
10. Jada Sezer
An actor and a model, Jada Sezer is honest about her journey with mental health and her fight for more size inclusivity, serving up incredible selfies while encouraging followers to embrace their own worth.
11. Callie Thorpe & The Confidence Corner
While Callie Thorpe is a plus-sized advocate who works to challenge fatphobia and toxic beauty standards, she’s also so much more. Much of her content works to center her joys and passions, making space for her followers to feel safe and loved as well. She also runs The Confidence Corner, an account that encourages women to love and embrace their bodies and pursue physical and mental wellness.
12. Allison Kimmey
Allison Kimmey’s bio reads “the self love mama you always needed.” Her content aims to make you feel at home and loved in your own body, assuring you that you don’t have to change anything about yourself to be worthy of respect.
13. i_weigh
I Weigh began as an initiative by actress and advocate Jameela Jamil encouraging women to measure their weight in accomplishments and relationships instead of pounds. Jamil has been vocal in addressing influencer accounts who make money encouraging their followers to look more like them; she famously took a stand against the Kardashians for advertising appetite-suppressing lollipops and shakes. I Weigh’s mission is to combat accounts that tell their followers that the only way to be happy is to buy a certain product or look a certain way, instead promoting messages of body positivity, self acceptance, and inclusion.
14. Sarah Frances Young
A body positive feminist with a chronic illness, Sarah Frances Young puts her daily struggles and triumphs on display with the hopes that it will encourage similar vulnerability and self acceptance in others.
More and more, our online presence is becoming melded with our real lives. So easily we can become submerged in attitudes, expectations and standards that cause us to feel like we’re not good enough. If you feel worse after getting off of Instagram then you did when you got on, try adding a few of these body positivity accounts— you might find that the regular encouragement and love can really make a difference.
