Thick women are redefining the image of beauty and allowing women to be women again, curves and all. You go, girls!
I have four girls. I am so happy things are turning around. The term thick women is used to describe women who aren’t fat, they just have a lot of curves. Thick girls are women who have assets in all the right places and aren’t ashamed of them.
In sixth grade, the boys called me “thunder thighs.” To put it into perspective, I was 98 pounds soaking wet and five-foot-eight. Yep, awkward. Just a few short decades ago anorexia and bulimia weren’t just a thing, they were a serious epidemic. If someone called you thick *although it wasn’t a thing then* it surely would have led to tears and an eating disorder.
20 things I admire about thick women
The phrase thick women is born out of the opposite of skinny. It used to be super hot to look like a prepubescent male with no hips, but that is no longer the “in” look. No matter what the media tries to portray, thick women win with reason. There are many advantages to being thick.
#1 You are smarter. It is a fact that when you starve yourself, you are literally not as smart as you would be if you ate what your body required. Our generation of hard-fast dieters could barely stand up, let alone think.
Your generation is not only smarter because you realize that a size doesn’t define you, but you are literally smarter because you get enough food and nutrients for your brains to operate correctly. [Read: Trends millennials will have to explain to their kids]
#2 You don’t closet eat or hide your real self. Yep, back in the day, we would say “Oh, no, I couldn’t eat another bite,” or just order a salad, and then in the dark crevices of our rooms, we would binge eat or eat all those things we would never admit to. Not a good way to live, feeling shame for eating. Your generation eats what they want and aren’t ashamed.
#3 You aren’t defined by a size. Your generation knows that thin or thick doesn’t make you pretty. What makes you pretty is your uniqueness and what is inside. Not judging or being judged by what your pants size says, you refuse to let someone tell you what you are worth or how pretty you are based on a number.
#4 You care as much about what is inside as what is out. Our generation was so concerned about being thin and what we looked like on the outside that not much attention was paid to who we were on the inside. Not distracted by beauty being skin deep, your generation understands that it is the total package, not just the size of it. [Read: Why is inner beauty more important than outer beauty?]
#5 You have confidence! No matter how thin we were, our generation was never good enough. You literally could wear a size 0. Yes, that is a thing, and that didn’t give us the confidence to walk into a room like we owned it.
No matter what size a woman is now, you have the confidence to pull off your own style and say screw you to anyone who doesn’t like what you look like or how big or small you are. [Read: Size zero and what you need to know about this dangerous obsession]
#6 You fill out a dress like none other. I always envied thick girls because they could make a dress look hot no matter what. When thin girls put on a dress, there is nothing but hip and clavicle bones, that isn’t all that sexy or interesting, but that is what we aspired for!
#7 Your skin touching your clothes is a good thing. I remember when baggy sweatshirts with leggings were the thing. If you even had clothes touching your skin, that sent a signal to your brain that you were too heavy and set off an automatic fear bell that had you starving yourself for the next month.
Now skinny jeans are not only a thing for skinny girls; they are for everyone to show off their awesome assets.
#8 You don’t judge other women by their size. As if it wasn’t bad enough that we judged ourselves by our size, we judged other women by theirs. If you were too thin, we hated you. If you were thick, we thought you lacked self-control.
There was no such thing as the perfect size, or if there was, you never found it for yourself. In my generation, other women were the enemy if they were thinner, and to look down on, if they were thicker. I am happy you are changing the mold. [Read: Why men love women and their oh-so-hot curves]
#9 You enjoy life instead of sitting on the bench. If I had a dime for all the things I missed out on because I was on a diet or trying to look better, I wouldn’t ever have to work again. Your generation doesn’t skip meals or not go out with friends because they gained five pounds.
You live life to the fullest regardless of what size of jeans you fit into. In our day, skinny jeans were the jeans you held onto even after you gained weight as a reminder of what you should look like. They were a constant reminder of failure, not a hot fad.
#10 You don’t spend hours on a tread master every day. Thick women like to stay in shape, but it doesn’t define their social schedule. You stay toned, but don’t beat yourself up in the gym for hours on end to watch the calories burn off. Your generation enjoys more free time to do what makes you happy instead of trying to be a specific size to make everyone else happy. [Read: How to feel sexy and desirable from within]
#11 You don’t believe in you can’t be too thin. You can look at a celebrity and say, “she looks awful” when she is too thin. When the tabloids in my day came out sporting too thin girls we thought “what are you crazy, she is my idol.”
#12 Seeing bones doesn’t make you feel good. Our generation enjoyed jutting bones and rumbling stomachs. It was a sign of our commitment to being thin. Your generation reads all those things as signs of being unhealthy. That is the way it should be.
#13 Your bra size isn’t one size fits all. Some women are well endowed, and then there are skinny people. When you have zero fat on your body, that means zero fat anywhere, which includes your bust region.
In an effort to be thin, women’s bodies are stripped of the nutrients that they need, affecting their hormones and robbing fat from everywhere, including their breast size.
#14 You aren’t consumed by calorie counting. Is there anything worse than a woman who not only counts her own calories but everyone’s around her? Our generation wouldn’t dare put anything in their mouths without carefully anguishing over each calorie.
Your generation doesn’t waste as much time doing calorie counts, not allowing certain foods to pass your lips, or chastising others for living life largely by having… oh no! Dessert. Good for you and lucky you! [Read: Atypical secretes to owning your beautiful you]
#15 You don’t hate on skinny girls. When you are comfortable in your own skin, you couldn’t care less about what someone else looks like. Thick girls are happy with what they look like, and, therefore, don’t run around hating on girls who achieved thinness through torture.
Your generation of girls is much more accepting of different shapes and sizes, mostly because you are happy with who you are.
#16 Thin doesn’t always mean healthy. I am from the generation of Diet Coke, cigarettes, and starvation. Although women who look thin and fit look healthy, they are among the unhealthiest people I know.
Not getting enough nutrients through cutting calories, and then burning even more, is only exasperated by supplementing our fluids with Diet Coke and starving our appetite with cigarettes. Thick girls get the fat they need and aren’t into putting artificial chemicals in their bodies to cut some calories. [Read: Too skinny for love? How being underweight can actually ruin romance]
#17 You are less controlling. Thin girls are very controlling. They have to be to make sure they never binge eat or overindulge. Thick girls have a more YOLO style of living. What is five pounds but a little extra curve in your curves? Thick women understand that having fun is more important than worrying about losing five pounds.
#18 You have better skin and hair. Thin girls who don’t get enough nutrients aren’t going to have the luxurious hair, long nails, or beautiful skin that thick girls have. When you get enough nutrition, your hair shines and your nails grow. When you don’t, those are the first subtle signs to suffer.
#19 Fit doesn’t equal skinny. I love that your generation has redefined what “fit” is. Being fit isn’t the perfect size two. It means you work out healthily, care about your curves, and are strong both inside and out. Skinny girls look fit because there isn’t any fat encasing their muscles, that is hardly healthy or strong. [Read: Dangerous curves and things all girls with wide hips know to be true]
#20 You are changing the world for every new generation. What I love most about thick women is that they have had the courage to be themselves. In doing so, they take a stand against stereotypes.
You have freed not just your generation but those that come after. You won’t teach your girls to starve themselves or to constantly be chasing an unrealistic body image.
Thick women are my heroes. I have never had curves, and anytime I find any, I jump back on that treadmill. A whole new generation of women who are okay with being shaped like women change the world and grow a much healthier, more secure gender of women who give the finger to those who judge them by the size of their jeans.
I, for one, am glad your generation has the courage to live life, care about what really matters, and get off the dieting roller coaster that consumed and destroyed so many women of my generation.
[Read: Women with curves and 20 ways they changed all women for the better]
Thick women should be applauded for not letting anyone define you and being comfortable and secure with what is inside and not worrying so much about the exterior.