Raise your hand if you agree that shopping for a bathing suit is a total nightmare. It feels like dressing room lighting was designed to be as unflattering as possible, and wriggling in and out of tiny spandex items in two square feet of space is never a comfortable experience. And if you don’t happen to wear street-size clothing? Welp, you’re super out of luck.
The experience of swimsuit shopping as a plus-size woman is something British model Sonny Turner addressed in an Instagram post that’s now gone viral, with over 11,000 likes and more than 500 comments. She shared three pictures of herself trying on a bikini that doesn’t support her breasts or cover her butt, explaining that the uncomfortable suit is one of the very few options in her size.
“NO ONE GETS IT,” she writes about how hard it is to find a properly-fitting suit. So Sonny offered some handy tips for swimsuit designers looking to make items for plus-size women. Among her demands: More underwire options, cup sizes that correlate to bra sizes (and go larger than a DD cup), tops that cover more than just her nipple, and straps that are not uncomfortably tight. As for bathing suit bottoms, she says more coverage options are definitely needed—as well as more choice. “Believe it or not, some of us actually want a thong bikini,” she writes.
“It’s not fair that we can’t wear cute swimwear just because we are built differently,” she wrote. “We deserve to walk into a store and pay £10 for a nice bikini without breaking the bank and our body confidence.”
People of all shapes and sizes can feel self-conscious in a bathing suit, but plus-size women are unfairly subjected to criticism and ridicule for—*gasp*—daring to show some skin. Wellness blogger Sarah Sapora recently rocked a bikini for the first time in 25 years, and has posted some amazing photographs on her social media accounts.
“I was held back by my OWN limiting belief that I was not worthy or comfortable wearing [a bikini],” Sarah said. “When we look to others to tell us that we are ‘acceptable’ then it is literally a prescription to feel unworthy in our own life. Only WE get to decide how we feel about ourselves! If other people are uncomfortable with my body in a bathing suit, that is not a reflection of my worth but of their perception of the value of my body.”
Here’s to loving your own body and not caring what others think—and we sure hope plus-size swimsuit designers get the memo about what women want, stat.
Written by Nina Bahadur.
This article was originally published on Women’s Health.