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#Hipdips is the new body-positive social media trend – but what is it?

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Credit: Instagram
Credit: Instagram

Earlier this year fitness blogger Carys Gray decided to root out a certain body feature that many women had been feeling insecure about for years.

?? HOLD UP let's talk about hip dips for a minute ???? As you can see from this picture and many of my other pictures I have preeeeeetty large 'hip dips'.. This is where my leg/hip area comes in just before my quad starts.. I thought these lil dips were unique to me until I read the gorgeous @sjamesfit this morning all about how they're actually a huge insecurity to loads of women!! I then went on to google hip dips and read all about how they're seen as a bad thing for women and some people even go as far as to have fat injected into them to smooth them out ???????? WELL I sure as hell wasn't about to add another thing onto my insecurity list ??????????? If anyone else has these cute ass hip dips then you should rock them.. For 20 years I've picked at areas of my body I hate but not once did I pick up on these! A few years ago I would have read that article and suddenly felt insecure and wanted to change them. Now I don't give a poo what other people think looks good on women or not. I think they're cool. ?? ?? And yes growing my quads 17483 times bigger has probably made the hip dips even more prominent but quads are cool too. Conclusion: I'm cool. You're cool. Everyone's cool. Bye. Don't forget to watch my latest YouTube video where I unbox my supplement delivery from @womensbest ???? LINK IN MY BIO ?????????? #fitness #fit #health #healthy #gym #workout #Abs #glutes #fitfam #girlswholift #cardio #fitspo #instafit #gains #girlgains #muscle #strength #motivation #muslce #booty #leanin15 #gymshark #gymsharkwomen #womensbest

A post shared by Carys Gray || Cardiff, UK???? (@busybee.carys) on

Four days ago, fitness Instagrammer Liv Jadefit decided to resurface the trend, and it's not surprising how many women joined in on the hashtag movement, choosing to embrace their 'flawed' figures.

 Read more: Stretchmarks left unretouched on models’ bums in new swimwear campaign


Lately on my dash I’ve seen lots of posts about hip dips. I just want to let you know that they're normal! It’s part of our anatomy, and on some is more noticeable than others. It all depends on your body type, muscle, and fat distribution. ?In case you didn't know, the femurs connect to the pelvis. Wow! Reference the 2nd picture if this is confusing!?That is exactly what a “hip dip” is. The space on the sides between the top of your pelvis and your femurs. You get a hip dip from being born with a skeleton. Incredible. Everyone has one, but sometimes it’s not as noticeable. Men and women have it, but it’s more noticable on women because our hips are usually more pronounced. Like I said earlier, it’s about fat and muscle distribution, as well as your own unique skeletal structure and shape. It's often more visible on those with wide, high-set hips. Some women have it more noticeable, some don’t, but it doesn’t mean it's not there. Everyone ?? has ?? them ?? Seriously, you'll have one as long as you keep your skeleton. Can they be decreased in appearance by losing excess fat? Sure, to an extent. But guess what? I had quite pronounced ones even at my leanest, when I carried so little fat that I stopped getting my period (this was unhealthy, I know). Hip dips are NOT the same as a muffin top. Sometimes they can create a similar appearance in clothing, but it's not!!! The same!! Thing!!! I've also seen people saying that hip dips can be filled out by working on your gluteus medius. That could be true for some people to a certain extent, but unless your hip dips are already barely visible, it's absolutely fucking ridiculous to think they'll be significantly filled out by growing a part of your glute. I know mine sure won't. They're too big, and that's okay! But go throw your money at whatever booty builder program you want and see if I care. Honestly, the visibility of mine is my biggest insecurity. I don't know why or at what point I was taught to hate them, but I was, and I'm working on unlearning it. It's really helped me seeing other girls on here post about theirs and NORMALIZING it. So here are mine!

A post shared by Sophia Van Leeuwen (@oatsnsquats) on

Hip dips, also know as violin hips, are basically visible indentations that curve inward around women's hips. The curve is situated just beneath the hip bone. The shape has nothing to do with weight and everything to do with our body structure. 

A quick search on YouTube and Google alike yields hundreds of results on how you can get rid of them, but you really shouldn’t.

"Gluteus medius isn't a meaty muscle, it wouldn't really be able to be built up to help with a dip. If the dip is from excess fat then exercise may help but again fat storage can be genetic. It's mostly down to high wide hips," says personal trainer Kelly-Marie Bakewell on Instagram.


Hip dip surgery and even hip dip exercises are common ways to apparently reduce the visibility of the indentations. While some women have claimed that they resorted to dieting and wearing high-waisted pants to cover up their dips, others wished for more extreme measures to be taken. One woman confessed she had considered liposuction at the age of 11 to get rid of it.

But while some women were celebrating this new trend of body love, others were not so keen to get on board and saw it as becoming an overblown stereotype. 

Read more: This local nude swimwear brand proves there's beauty in diversity

True. You never know...

But regardless of which side you're on it is important to accept and appreciate that everyone's bodies are perfectly sculpted, exceptional and unique. The best thing you can do is to learn to love yourself and have a good positive approach to your body. So embrace your dips, just like this feisty little guy has chosen to embrace his.

My baby got dem violin hips cos he's classy #proud #violinhips #hipdips #dogstagram

A post shared by Megan Wills (@charmcitymegan) on


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