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It’s hard to find someone who doesn’t have a few stretch marks here or there. But they’re never celebrated even though they are so common.
Sara Shakeel, a Pakistani artist, centers her work around stretch marks and celebrating what is typically considered to be a shameful body feature. Shakeel takes photos of stretch marks, sometimes her own, and edits glitter over top of them.
In one of her latest Instagram posts she wrote, “I have never felt so powerful & liberated and so fucking proud of my stretch marks in my entire life!!”
https://www.instagram.com/p/Ba7TRDjBTUc/?taken-by=sarashakeel
Shakeel also wrote that stretch marks were never talked about growing up and they were always considered to be shameful. She never thought that her glitter stretch marks would make such a huge impact. “I’d be honest even before uploading it I was thinking why would anyone be interested in my concept of stretch marks turned into glitter or crystals!! My god I was so wrong!,” she wrote on Instagram.
She told Teen Vogue in an email, “I have so many pictures of girls [and] women with scars or even wrinkles asking me to create something beautiful out of it,” she said. “I feel honored and worthy every time I do that.”
Even if you don’t submit a photo for Shakeel to edit you should always celebrate your body. Features that you may think are flaws could actually be art.
