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In a world where body perfection is the ultimate goal on Instagram, this woman has decided to fight the status quo and fully embrace her stretchmarks.
Christina Carter, who’s based in Dallas, US, once weighed more than 124 kg but has changed her life drastically after deciding to undergo gastric bypass surgery.
Three years after her amazing body transformation, the 29-year old is proudly opening up about how she’s finally accepted the stretchmarks that were left on her body after her extreme weight loss.
Christina, whose handle on Instagram is weightlosshero, regularly posts pictures showcasing her stretchmarks to her more than 219 000 followers.
So, after reading an incredible story about a Barcelona artist who effortlessly paints rainbow lines onto women’s stretch marks, Christina knew she simply had to try it.
“It made me want to paint MY scars and walk the streets of Downtown Dallas wearing them proudly,” Christine told POPSUGAR.
And that’s exactly what the brunette-haired beauty did!
While sashaying her way down Dallas streets, with beautiful artistic lines painted on her stretch marks, Christina had expectedly turned many heads. She was met with the occasional “what are you doing?” but was overwhelmed with the number of people who genuinely wanted to hear her incredible story.
“We even had a DART [Dallas Area Rapid Transit] train driver stop and lean out of the train wanting to know my story. She couldn't believe that I’d lost 175 pounds [79 kg],” she says.
Her bold act inspired people so much that she even started
a movement called #LoveYourMarks in order to encourage body positivity.
But Christina wasn’t always this confident in her skin. After her divorce with her ex-husband, the Dallas native felt insecure about entering the dating scene again. But it took a simple conversation with her personal trainer to spark a much-needed change in her mindset.
“One day I went to my trainer, Justin Blevins, and told him, ‘But what if men won’t like my body? I have all these stretchmarks and will eventually have a huge tummy tuck scar spanning across my tummy!’
“And he looked at me and said, ‘You know what? I like scars. I think they’re beautiful because they tell your powerful story’,” she explains.
From that day onwards, the social media influencer decided that she’d learn to fall in love with each and every single mark on her body and vowed to wear them as a badge of honour.
“It took some time, but I can honestly say I’ve embraced them all. I actually like my big tummy tuck scar! I worked hard for this!” says Christine.
The 29-year-old now hopes to inspire people to surround themselves with positive energy and embrace the scars they have on their body.
“We all have scars, and they make us beautifully unique,” she says.
Sources: simplemost.com, popsugar.com, dailymail.co.uk
