Juliana Harkavy Instagram – Gym selfie story time! 🏋🏽‍♀️📖 … Let’s go back to 3rd grade science class 🔬💫✨ I was 9 years old. The teacher asked a question I knew the answer to. I bounced excitedly in my seat, hand raised. 🙋🏽‍♀️ Then came the words I’d remember into my adulthood. “Ugh! How much do you weigh!?” The little girl next to me stared down at my thighs jiggling against my chair, appalled. I mumbled some humiliated response and made sure to sit still with my legs raised off my seat for the rest of class. 😔 That moment began a decade-plus of body dysmorphia, eating disorders, and shame spirals. 🌀 In those days, I was made fun of for my big butt, big thighs, big lips, and curly hair. From age 11, photographers, agents, and producers told me to lose weight if I ever wanted success. 👎🏽 I spent years harming myself with fad diets, binging, purging, chemical hair straighteners, painting my lips with concealer, anything to hide what others didn’t like. 🫣 Fast forward 29 years. The world has changed and now butt implants, lip injections, and big hair are all the rage. 🤯 And while it’s nice that thick frizzy girls have been deemed beautiful by society, what’s “in” no longer dictates my confidence. I don’t need permission to love myself. 🧘🏽‍♀️✨ My body has carried me through storms of epic proportions. She looked out for me even when I didn’t. These thunder thighs walked me right out of gross toxicity and into a life of safety, peace, and love. 💖 I’m exercising almost every day now, but not to be skinny, not for anyone else. For my own mental health, physical strength, and longevity. 💪🏽 I’m around my heaviest weight, and it’s by far the most beautiful I’ve ever felt. This is the happiest I’ve ever been. My flaws have become my assets; Because I don’t give a fuck about anyone’s beauty standards but my own. 🫶🏽🦋💫 #youarebeautiful #fuckbeautystandards #selflove #youareenough #edrecovery #bornthisway #mentalhealth #womenempowerment #fitnessjourney #bodypositive #motivational #changethenarrative #curvygirl #slimthicc #overcome #shadowwork #bodypositivity #happinesscomesfromwithin #acceptance #selfcare #begentlewithyourself #inspirational #healing #beyoutiful