Sharny Kieser, an Australian fitness blogger, is a mother of six. For years she didn’t dare to slip on a bikini due to the lasting effects the pregnancies had on her body. But one day she overheard her husband Julius talking about her stretch marks to his friends. Sharny made her thoughts known in a post on Instagram:
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“I used to not see the point in exercise because my body was covered in stretch marks. ‘What’s the point in having a great body if I will never wear a bikini,’ I’d think. If I was ever invited to the beach or a pool party, I’d always decline. On the odd occasion I couldn’t avoid it, I’d stay inside, helping with the food or the cleaning. I would only wear board shorts and t-shirts. I wished so hard that I could one day wear a bikini.
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Then one day I overheard my loving husband explaining to a bunch of his friends why he thought stretch marks were beautiful. They were a sign of being a woman. They are a result of the great love a mother has, that she would scar her own body to bring a child to life… On and on he explained and the more he talked, the more I got it. I had hated myself for the very reasons he loved me. My body wasn’t ruined or disgusting, it had transformed from a selfish girl’s body into a selfless mother’s body, and the scars were a symbol of that transition.
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A daily reminder that I was a mother. I looked at my stretch marks and I felt pride. I felt love. The love of my husband and the love of my children. Each one of them had been nurtured and lived behind those scars for 9 months. I felt pride. I felt love. I felt love for myself. The craziest thing was that when I started to love myself for what I had now, the body I had now, I began to treat myself better. I WANTED to eat healthy. I WANTED to exercise, I WANTED to do the things I loved.