In recent years, social media has become a platform for people to promote alternative conceptions of beauty, and to encourage body positivity. It's certainly about time that we see some diversity on our screens, and while plus-size models such as Ashley Graham and Tess Holliday are doing their part to break down archaic body values, ordinary people take to Instagram and Twitter daily to showcase aspects of themselves which aren't considered "conventionally" attractive by society writ large.
The latest of these so-called "trends" comes in the form of women embracing their port wine stains - a vascular birthmark caused by an abnormal development of blood vessels in the skin. Rather than covering up their birthmarks with cosmetics, many women are taking to Instagram to show theirs off in the best ways...
And some of the captions are just incredible. "Let me be clear that my birthmark does not define me and who I am, but it has shaped who I have become. I like to focus on what I can do and what I have done and less about what I have endured – because we have all come from colorful and painful pasts, just different intensity levels of both," one individual asserted, while another kept it short and sweet, writing "When you find beauty in yourself, the warrior peaks through."
Here are some of our favourite posts from Instagram...
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Well, wasn't that inspiring. Good on these women for embracing their birthmarks, and absolutely killing it in the process.
