Who is a Body Positive Influencer?

When it comes to body positivity, there are many different voices that can be considered as being a body positive influencer.

From bloggers and celebrities to everyday people, anyone can be a body positive influencer by sharing their own story and helping others feel accepted and loved for who they are. In this blog post, we will explore who some of the most popular body positive influencers are and what makes them so inspiring.

I hope that after reading this, you’ll feel encouraged to embrace your own body positivity journey!

What do body positive influencers do?

I’m Michaela Leitz aka @aboutmichaela a plus size and body positive influencer. I started 2016 on Instagram and just shared my own life, the good and the bad.

I wanted to document my own journey and be transparent with who I am and what body image issues I face being plus size in a world that tells me daily that I’m not good enough because of my size.

After a while I gained more and more followers, but not only that I had so many women and even sometimes men commenting and reaching out to me with really uplifting messages.

It felt so empowering and helped my self esteem to know I am not alone in this universe. I love to help people and motivate them, so that’s when it hit me.

I want to be someone who can make a difference in this world and hopefully show people they are beautiful just the way they are. No matter what!

I became a body positive advocate

I stopped following influencers out of the fitness industry and skinny models on Instagram and followed more and more women with a beautiful body image and body confidence.

Seeing these women with different body types who celebrate body love and even pose in bikini pics with their beautiful stretch marks gave me so much body confidence. I never really saw any other women anymore on my instagram feed than women who celebrate body acceptance and self love.

And guess what, I got infected with body positive power and my mental health suddenly got so much better.

The diet culture made it really hard for me

As a teenager I used to be a size 0, had a lot of health issues and mental health problems followed by eating disorder and harsh self judgment. But plus size models like Ashley Graham gave me my daily dose of confidence and I became the best version of myself.

Stop dieting and start with intuitive eating!

This is surely something that has helped me a lot, in my transitioning to a healthy life but also clearer skin. Sounds crazy I know but as less I stressed myself about whether I should eat particular food or not the better I felt in my own shape.

Beauty comes from within and helps with your self acceptance.

What are some examples of body positive behavior?

Some examples of body positive behavior include creating and sharing content that promotes acceptance of all bodies, as well as recognizing your own internalized fatphobia or other negative attitudes towards certain types of people.

When I started to follow more body positive influencers on social media my whole life changed. They showed me the beauty in every single body type and I suddenly started to look at myself in a different way.

This kind of positive thinking is why so many people love these body positive influencer—because they’re not afraid to be themselves, even if it means going against conventional beauty standards or societal norms!

Real talk also became important to me

I do not shy away anymore and I talk boldly about societies problems. I also talk about my own struggles and how I overcame them. This is something that has happened to me since becoming a body positive advocate, I have started to see the world in a different way.

We should be teaching our children from an early age

The beauty industry is constantly brainwashing us with the perfect image of what “beauty” is and this is not okay. We should be teaching our children from an early age that all shapes and sizes are beautiful, we should embrace different skin colors and hair textures.

We need to change the way we think about beauty

The definition of “beauty” needs to change, it’s time for a paradigm shift! The current definition is too exclusive, it’s time to change the definition to include all people. Body positive influencer are helping to pave the way for this change!

The Media and Social media is a big reason why there are so many girls suffering from eating disorders

and body dysmorphia. We just have one body and we have to treat this body and our mental health well.

We need to be more aware of the impact that social media has on our mental health, and we need to start promoting body positive messages instead! Thank you body positive influencers for helping to create a more inclusive world!

To have stretch marks on our bodies is nothing to be ashamed of

I have them and they are a part of my beautiful body. As long as we love and respect our bodies, nothing else matters.

We need to start celebrating all body types, because that’s what will help us achieve true body positivity. So many women (and men!) suffer from negative thoughts and feelings about their bodies, but we can change this by working together to promote self-love and acceptance!

Body Image Issues are caused because we don’t see anything else than “perfection”

Society has a huge impact on how we view our own bodies. We’re constantly bombarded with images of “perfect” people, which can make us feel like we need to change ourselves in order to be accepted.

The truth is, you are beautiful just the way you are! And there’s no need to strive for an unrealistic beauty standard.

Fashion can be cruel for plus size women

Since there are still not enough plus size fashion brands out there who cater with plus size style and fit it is hard for us to archive the wardrobe of our dreams.

But don’t worry the awareness that also being “big” means being a beauty is rising more and more!

I am happy there are more brands in this world now who dress us big women in confidence! And also I feel the confidence and beauty in my looks. I never want to look back on the lack of self love and body confidence I used to have. And I couldn’t be happier to see more and more brands working now with body positive influencers too!

I feel well in my skin and right in this world now

It’s not so easy to look back to the eating disorders I used to have as a size 0 girl, I never felt good enough or well in my own skin. But I made it trough, became a plus size woman and started the journey of loving myself.

Instagram is a great resource

Ok mostly people do not post so many unedited photos on their instagram page but our confident plus size model and body positive influencer Tess Holiday does and shares her personal experience.

There was once one post of her on my social media feed that inspired me immediately to get the same outfit. And this is the power that these curvy girls have. Helping us with our own self acceptance, feeling well in our own skin, and celebrate fashion in all shapes.

Why Instagram did not harm my body positivity

often Instagram is portrait as the evil, but it helped me to practice self love and self care more than anything else.

Same as in real life it always matters with whom you surround yourself with.

How do you start a positive body on Instagram?

You can start by following body positive influencers, like me, and unfollow people who make you feel bad about yourself.

I strongly believe that we have the power to change our lives simply by changing the things we consume on a daily basis! If someone is consuming something negative such as weight loss youtube channel and only fitness bodies then it’s likely that person will have a negative body image or feel bad if she/he/they doesn’t look the same.

On the other hand, if someone consumes positive things such as body positive media and promotes self-love then that person is likely to have a better body image!

So make sure you’re following people who make you feel good about yourself, and unfollow anyone who makes you feel bad!

On my feed there is only inspiration, confidence and all kind of shapes visible. I have created the tiny perfect world on my instagram feed and in my opinion you should do the same to fight against your own issues.

Does Instagram promote body positivity?

Instagram is a great place to find body positivity. There are so many influencers who promote self love and talk about the importance of mental health, which I believe strongly in myself.

It’s not just women either! Men can be body positive too! The best part about social media is that there are no rules; you can be whoever you want to be, and that’s what makes it so great!

There are a lot of body positive accounts on Instagram, but I would recommend following people like me who promote self love and acceptance. We can all help each other out by promoting positive messages, and together we can make a difference!

I do not want to say it’s bad to have a goal weight or aim for skinny fashion or dieting. But it never helped myself and I never felt healthy when I was in this world full of superficiality.

I am happy to see women of all skin tones, shape and also body hair on

the runway and in magazines. I think it’s important to see different types of beauty because that is what real life looks like! There is not just one way to be beautiful, and we should celebrate all kinds of beauty!

Also finally our society is opening up to non-binary gender which I think is a huge inspiration to me as a plus-size woman who has created a confident body image for herself.

Who are popular body positive Instagram influencers?

It’s difficult to say which body positive Instagram influencers are the most popular because there are so many people who love themselves and share their happiness with others.

The best part about social media is that it doesn’t matter what your body type looks like! If you’re curvy, straight size or have a little extra weight on you. You can be body positive!

Some of my favorite body positive influencers on Instagram include Tess Holiday, Megan Jayne Crabbe, Stephanie Yeboah, Jessamyn Stanley. They all promote self love and acceptance, and are a great resource for anyone who is looking to improve their body image! I can never get enough of the style these women have!

As a body positive influencer and plus size woman I am so happy to see the shift in our society.

I became truly body positive when I started working with fashion brands

In the past years I worked with a lot of brands to promote their clothes and mission on Instagram. More and more brands become now size inclusive but not only that also more smaller brands and designers have been founded and I enjoy every single collaboration.

What I love the most is that these brands don’t only come with a size range but also with different shapes and styles which makes it so much more interesting.

More and more women fell in love with the outfits I have posted, and were super grateful for all the style advice and brand recommendation I am giving out on my instagram account and became a body positive influencer.

In 2018 I decided to become a professional fashion stylist and image consultant

I didn’t do this just to help myself, but also other women. I wanted to be a body positive influencer and help change the way society perceives beauty. But for being able to help other women professionally I first had to study fashion. Every body shape is so unique, every skin and hair color is unique. And putting together the perfect styles does require a lot of wisdom and technique.

So I decided to go back to school, and now I am a proud fashion stylist!

After I received my diploma in fashion styling & image consulting I started my own company “Michaela Leitz – Confidence & Style” and have never been happier in my life.

Some brands are not as body positive as they pretend to be

Some still only portrait models who are way too thin to be a plus size model or even put skinny models in fat suits instead of working with a true plus size model.

I think it’s important for brands to embrace all shapes and sizes

and not just focus on one body type! We should celebrate diversity, and that includes different body shapes.

In 2020 I even had a very well known American clothing company reaching out to me with the message they have now also plus size fashion and would love to collaborate with them.

As I asked for their size range as I was already very skeptical they told me their plus size fashion size range goes until size US14. I was really shocked and angry! Size 14 is not plus size! How can they even have the audacity to reach out to me?

Also men should be body positive too

There are so many body positive men out there! I think it’s important for them to be vocal about their love for their bodies, and help break the stigma that being body positive is only a “women thing.”

I also want our sons to grow up in a world where they don’t have to be a Calvin Klein underwear model. They can be whoever they want to be, and love their body no matter what! We sometimes forget that society tells boys and men not to talk about their feelings and problems as this is “weak” and men have to be “strong”.

I think that is BS and men should show their feelings and vulnerability too.

There are so many amazing body positive influencers out there

and I am honored to call a lot of them them my friends. They have helped me learn to love myself, flaws and all. And I hope that by reading this post, you will feel inspired to do the same. Some of them live on the other side of the world, but I still feel so close to them as we talk, video chat, laugh and cry together.

With some of them I even had the possibility to meet up in real life already, and I can’t wait to meet even more of these beautiful souls!

Are you also on the journey of body acceptance ?

Follow me on Instagram @aboutmichaela to see my journey, fashion and daily life.

I am here on this planet to enjoy my life, and so should you.