Women's bodies are scrutinized at every shape and size. Society's skewed standards of beauty can lead women to believe they're never skinny enough, never pretty enough, never perfect enough.
Simone Pretscherer, a makeup artist from New Zealand, had enough of being told that she wasn't enough. So when she received negative feedback about her body, she decided to push back against the haters.
For the past 11 months, Pretscherer has been publicly documenting her weight loss. On the Facebook page for what she calls "Simone's Journey to Health," Pretscherer talks about her lifelong battle with her body. "I have always struggled with my weight," she writes, "and have often resorted to easy fix diets where I would loose a lot of weight but as quickly as I lost it I would gain it back."
After 8 weeks of maintaining healthier habits, Pretscherer had gastric sleeve surgery, which has enabled her to lose 188 pounds since last August. Pretscherer recently posted a before and after selfie to Instagram documenting her weight loss. And here is where the trolls felt the need to weigh in, accusing Pretscherer of faking the "after" photo.
On Instagram, Pretscherer wrote that she was "hurt" by these accusations. But she decided to knock down the haters by posting another photo -- and showing more skin. Since dramatic weight loss is often accompanied by excess skin that can usually only be removed through surgery, it's refreshing to see more women refusing to be ashamed of their bodies.
"I hope this helps all the 'non believers,'" Pretscherer wrote in the caption, "my face uncovered, yes my hair and eyebrows are a different colour as I'm going back to blonde, yes I have changed my phone from Samsung to apple...yes I have lose skin and stretch marks but I don't feel the need to show them in every single photo I post online...GO ME!"
Oh hell yes. Go Simone.
This article has been updated to include additional information about Pretscherer's surgical procedure.
H/T: Bustle
Also On HuffPost:
