The Right Swimsuit For Your Body Is Whatever The Heck You Want It To Be

The second spring arrives everything you see is dominated by how to get the perfect 'bikini body' or the perfect 'beach body.' It is everywhere. From your social media newsfeed to the checkout line at the grocery store. Then the discussions begin about the right swimsuit for your body type. Like there is only one swimsuit that will make you look thin if you aren't. I spent years of my life avoiding all swimsuits but have recently found that wearing a two piece is incredibly liberating. I'm no longer plus size but I'm also a far cry from a fitness model. What I've noticed, most profoundly, is that people really don't care what I'm wearing just as I don't care what they are wearing. Fashion blogger at Bustle (and fab model pictured above), Marie Southard Ospina, summed up the struggle for many plus size women when she said:

The thing is, if you’re a plus-size woman, there’s no bathing suit in the world that’ll make you not look plus-size. We can, of course, wear tent dresses and baggy coverups, but at the end of the day, most of us will still be fat. And at the end of the day, everyone around us will still know that. I can assure you that no matter how many swim skirts and tankini tops I’ve worn in my life, I’ve never fooled anyone into thinking I’m skinnier than I am.

Summer is our reward for surviving the long, cold winters. Why should any of us waste a single second hating our bodies or wishing that we were different? Again, Southard Ospina sums it up perfectly:

whether you’re 140 pounds and work out every day, 140 pounds and never touch a treadmill, 280 pounds and work out every day, or 280 pounds and never touch a treadmill, you deserve to feel beautiful. You deserve to put on whatever bathing suit your heart desires and rock it anywhere and everywhere. All bodies — be they toned or flabby, medically classed as “healthy” or “unhealthy” — are, in fact, bikini ready. And what’s more? They’re worthy of any swimsuit. Not just the “flattering” ones or the “ones that hide that visible belly outline.”

So really, the moral of the story is, wear what you like. Wear what will make you feel fabulous. If something looks beautiful and you want to put it on your body, knock yourself out! The threat of external judgement should never stop you from feeling fabulous. For those that are disgusted by this thought, is what someone else wears to the pool or beach really that important in your own existence? Live and let live, I say.