Thanks to Kim Kardashian, and the endless slew of Instagram models who are inspired by her, 2018 is proving to be yet another year of the derriere. While the 90's and 00's celebrated women of the heroin chic variety, à la Kate Moss, right now, society is finally seeing the beauty in fuller figures. However, this doesn't come without its own set of narrow, and oft impossible beauty ideals. Littered with a cornucopia of lithe gazelles with peachy derrieres, toned tummies and perfectly smooth skin, it can't be said that Instagram is great at championing diversity.

But amongst all the perfectly retouched and filtered women on Instagram, there are also body positivity activists, who aspire to help young women see the beauty in their insecurities and purported imperfections. One such person is Instagram fitness model and body positivity advocate, Louise Aubrey, who has made it her mission to showcase the reality behind the images we see on social media by posting side-by-side pictures of herself to reveal the difference between what's real and what's staged.

Stressing that posture and the way that you position yourself can totally transform how your body looks, the Paris-based university student uploaded images of herself "posing" and then standing naturally to demonstrate the difference between the two. In a post which garnered over 13,050 likes and hundreds of comments, Louise pops her bum and then clenches it, and the difference is crazy. 

"You cannot understand, you have a perfect body," she captioned the post. "Yes, I workout. Yes, I eat healthy. No, I do not have a perfect body. And you know why? Because I stopped looking for it. When I started working out, I had these crazy expectations on the body I hoped / wanted to get. Finally, I will get a thigh gap, a flat stomach, and no more cellulite !! Because that’s how a healthy body is perceived. Because people make you think is it not normal to have it. But you know what? It is. Yes, I still store fat on my stomach. Yes, I still have cellulite. And yes, I am still healthy. Remember one thing : your body is NOT the enemy".

And the rest of Louise's posts are dedicated to proving that you can have abs and eat dessert too...

Louise has continually asserted that she's not aiming for perfection - but it hasn't always been this way. Her fitness goals have drastically changed since she first started exercising to lose weight after gaining 20 pounds from hormonal birth control, and giving up gymnastics and dance to study for university exams.

When she did reach her initial goal, however, she started to question her motives. "When you achieve the body you want, and you realise it doesn't make you any happier, you realise there is so much more that comes into play — like truly accepting your body," she stated.

Now she works out simply because it makes her feel good. "I get that we all want to show ourselves in the best light on social media," Louise wrote. "But I feel like it's necessary to show the 'normal' and even 'bad' light to help deconstruct the unreachable standards that have been set by social media."

Thanks to Kim Kardashian, and the endless slew of Instagram models who are inspired by her, 2018 is proving to be yet another year of the derriere. While the 90's and 00's celebrated women of the heroin chic variety, à la Kate Moss, right now, society is finally seeing the beauty in fuller figures. However, this doesn't come without its own set of narrow, and oft impossible beauty ideals. Littered with a cornucopia of lithe gazelles with peachy derrieres, toned tummies and perfectly smooth skin, it can't be said that Instagram is great at championing diversity.

But amongst all the perfectly retouched and filtered women on Instagram, there are also body positivity activists, who aspire to help young women see the beauty in their insecurities and purported imperfections. One such person is Instagram fitness model and body positivity advocate, Louise Aubrey, who has made it her mission to showcase the reality behind the images we see on social media by posting side-by-side pictures of herself to reveal the difference between what's real and what's staged.

Stressing that posture and the way that you position yourself can totally transform how your body looks, the Paris-based university student uploaded images of herself "posing" and then standing naturally to demonstrate the difference between the two. In a post which garnered over 13,050 likes and hundreds of comments, Louise pops her bum and then clenches it, and the difference is crazy. 

"You cannot understand, you have a perfect body," she captioned the post. "Yes, I workout. Yes, I eat healthy. No, I do not have a perfect body. And you know why? Because I stopped looking for it. When I started working out, I had these crazy expectations on the body I hoped / wanted to get. Finally, I will get a thigh gap, a flat stomach, and no more cellulite !! Because that’s how a healthy body is perceived. Because people make you think is it not normal to have it. But you know what? It is. Yes, I still store fat on my stomach. Yes, I still have cellulite. And yes, I am still healthy. Remember one thing : your body is NOT the enemy".

And the rest of Louise's posts are dedicated to proving that you can have abs and eat dessert too...

Louise has continually asserted that she's not aiming for perfection - but it hasn't always been this way. Her fitness goals have drastically changed since she first started exercising to lose weight after gaining 20 pounds from hormonal birth control, and giving up gymnastics and dance to study for university exams.

When she did reach her initial goal, however, she started to question her motives. "When you achieve the body you want, and you realise it doesn't make you any happier, you realise there is so much more that comes into play — like truly accepting your body," she stated.

Now she works out simply because it makes her feel good. "I get that we all want to show ourselves in the best light on social media," Louise wrote. "But I feel like it's necessary to show the 'normal' and even 'bad' light to help deconstruct the unreachable standards that have been set by social media."