Bellies

Listen.  I love a lot of things about bellies.  First off, I love the word "belly".  I think it just sounds so wonderful and silly.  Also, I just like the way they look, from an artistic standpoint.  Like, soft bellies, not six-pack bellies.  Six-pack bellies give me the heebie jeebies.

Anyway, so xoJane did this thing called the Real Girl Belly Project, and it's just so many bellies! Big bellies little bellies fat bellies skinny bellies pretty bellies ugly bellies, etc.  Bellies. All sorts of regular girls taking photos of their bellies at home, in the bathroom, at work, all over the place.  And they talk about what they love about their bellies and all their imperfections, which I think is great.

My belly is my least favorite part of my whole body.  It's my biggest "trouble area", if you will, especially as of late.  I have what I not-so-lovingly refer to as my "inner tube" and my "fanny pack", which are my kinder gentler terms for "muffin top" and "fupa".  Ever since I lost a whole bunch of weight in 10th grade in everywhere but my fanny pack, I have been out of proportion.  I have more stretchmarks than a mother of three, and I'm not sure I even have a belly button anymore.  I haven't seen it in years.

BUT, if there's anything I've learned from the Real Girl Belly Project, it's that I should be proud of my belly.  Or at least try to be.  It's not perfect, by any means, but there are lots of girls with bellies that are bigger than mine, uglier than mine, weirder than mine, and yet they're able to embrace them.  I'm going to try to work on embracing my belly, but also on making it smaller.

So ladies, take a little time to embrace your belly.  Be it big or small, it helps you stand up straight, sing in the shower, eat lots of yummy food, and maybe someday it will even hold a baby.