Blogger Gets Real About Body Image: “A Higher Dress Size Doesn’t Mean You Are Less Lovable”

We’ve probably all been there at one point or another: You excitedly enter the fitting room of a new store with an armful of cute clothes to try on, only to discover that you were totally off on your sizing. As you attempt to squeeze and wiggle your way into those jeans, you can’t comprehend why on earth a certain size fits you at one store but doesn’t even zip up at another retailer. It can be downright disheartening, but it doesn’t have to be.

Blogger Michelle Elman is no stranger to tackling common misconceptions about weight, and one of her latest Instagram posts will make you reevaluate your thoughts about clothing sizes. She recently shared a side-by-side comparison showing herself wearing the same exact dress five years apart. On the left, she dons the lacy dress back in 2012, when she was a size 12, and on the right, she wears the same outfit in 2017, when she’s currently a size 20. In the caption of her post, Michelle explains why everyone should ignore the size stitched onto your clothing and not let it define how they feel about their bodies.

She starts the post by proudly proclaiming that “Numbers don’t mean anything” before challenging readers to think about why they should turn a blind eye to said numbers. “Are you really going to let a change [in] dress size dictate your day?” she wrote. “Are you really going to let an increase in a number affect your mood?”

Michelle continues her caption by describing how a higher dress size doesn’t mean you’re any less “beautiful,” “worthy,” or “lovable,” which we couldn’t possibly agree with more. She then reassures her followers that having a higher dress size doesn’t even necessarily mean your body is bigger. “You could go up a dress size by simply changing stores . . . (or countries). You can change dress sizes because of the time of the day or simply due to whether you are on your period or not.”

If you’re ever feeling down about wishy-washy clothing sizes, bookmark Michelle’s post and you’ll instantly feel inspired to say “f*ck it” to all those numbers and just start living based on how you feel rather than what the tags say.