Love Your Boobs, Love Yourself

Most of you know October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and to most women it’s a month to bring more awareness to breast cancer, to remind women to get their mammograms regularly, to celebrate those who’ve survived, and remember those who’ve lost their lives to breast cancer. But this month isn’t just about that. It’s about reminding women to embrace ourselves and recognize what makes us beautiful, unique, and what defines us as women.

My friend Courtney from the eclectic lifestyle blog Fry Sauce & Grits started a movement called LOVE YOUR BOOBS, LOVE YOURSELF. Courtney is a bra fitter, bra educator, blogger, and is passionate about women issues. She created a video where she interviewed a group of women and asked them questions about their relationship with their breasts, how they’ve experienced breast shame, how they feel the media depicts breasts, and how we as women can come to love and accept and love our breasts.

“I find that most women have a hate relationship with their breasts and that makes me really sad. They’re either small, large, lopsided, saggy, or too wide, and it made me realize that we need to stop this breast and body shaming because our bodies are beautiful and powerful,” Courtney said. “I hope to inspire women with this Love Your Boobs, Love Yourself video that to completely love ourselves as women, we need to love and accept our boobs. There’s a direct relationship between our self image of and the relationship we have with our breasts. Breasts don’t define us but they are definitely a part of us. I want to bring awareness that this dysfunctional relationship we as women have with our breasts and with our bodies are directly stemmed from what the media portrays to be what is perfect and the ideal of beauty. I want to push the message that we aren’t defined by our breast size and how we as women are defined by something greater.”

I have come together with a group of other blogging women from different backgrounds, religions, ethnicities, ages, shapes and yes breast sizes,  to love ourselves and our breasts! You can join in this movement too by sharing a picture of yourself and what you love about your breasts and what defines you as a woman! You don’t need a blog either! Just tag your photo with #LoveYourBoobsLoveYourself on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and search the hashtag to see who else has joined in.

So, here I am in a late night “I love my boobs!” selfie. What, you don’t take those? 😉 I really do love my boobs. Not because of their shape or size and not even because they fed my babies (they were actually really terrible at that part). I love them simply because they are part of the vehicle that allows me to experience life. The vehicle that allows me to be a wife and mother, a sister, daughter and friend. That allows me to dream and laugh and feel. My boobs are not perfect, but I am more than my boobs. I am more than my body. I am brave, kind, hard working, real, intelligent, passionate, fun and ambitious. And, I’d still be all of those things, even if I didn’t have boobs at all. Let’s stop worrying so much about the shape and size of our boobs and our bodies and start paying closer attention to what’s underneath. Let’s love every piece of our bodies simply because they are part of us. Let’s love them because they are part of the vehicle that makes it possible to share the really important parts.

Now, take a minute and watch the video, I hope it will inspire you to stop breast shaming and start loving your breasts and yourself more!

Below are other brave and beautiful women who are sharing their stories of breast shame, breast love, what they’ve learned from their breasts, what they mean to them, and how we as women we can learn to love our breasts and ourselves more! So don’t stop here. Get clicking around, its a blog hop! I hope as you click around (and YES pin these different posts!) you will feel the importance of women loving themselves, the empowering effect sharing each of our voices will inspire others in some way.

1. Fry Sauce & Grits 2.Allred Design 3. Ashlee Marie 4. Lucky Blogs 5. A Ruffled Life 6. Feel Great in 8 7. Tara Made It 8.Dreaming About Someday 9. MOMentity 10. Dana Ohlsen Photography 11. Life in My Heels 12. Diary of a Brown Eyed Girl
13. Utah Mom Connection 14. Lionesses at the Gate 15. Laura’s Crafty Life

Are you ready to share your story? Make sure to tag your picture with the hashtag #LoveYourBoobsLoveYourself and @courtney_frysauceandgrits to participate in this powerful movement to inspire women to completely love themselves!