This Body-positive Blogger Clapped Back To Trolls Who Slammed Her For Gaining Weight In The Best Way

Body-transformation photos have become somewhat of a social-media phenomenon in recent times and by now, most of us are tuned into the fact personal trainers who spend their lives exercising and Instagramming said activities don't look as sculpted in real life as they seem to online. But body-positive blogger Megan Jayne Crabbe has bucked the trend by sharing side-by-side images of herself before and after weight gain which has resulted in some rather cruel comments.

The Internet is the best of times and the worst of times and this is proof of the latter. Allow us to introduce you to your new body-positivity muse Megan Jayne Crabbe. The UK-based blogger - who nicknames herself Bodyposipanda - has given two fingers up to the unrealistic body types that litter our social-media feeds by sharing side-by-side images of herself before and after gaining weight, insisting she's much happier now she's curvier.

"Wait so you just decided to RUIN your body?" Nah, I just stopped torturing myself every day for not fitting an image I was never supposed to be. · "But you look so much healthier to me before." That's funny, you looked so much more intelligent to me before you equated health with weight and forgot that mental health is health too. · "You could have stayed the same and loved your body, you didn't need to get fat." I could have stayed the same and spiralled back into the eating disorder that almost killed me when I was 15. I could have kept starving myself and obsessively working out for hours everyday but it never would have lead me to self love. No matter how much weight I lost there was always still something to hate. And sure, people don't NEED to gain weight to find their self love, this is just what my body needed to do to match up to my mental freedom. THIS IS MY HAPPY BODY. · "But surely you can't be happy looking like that now, I could never be happy in that body." I didn't think I could either, but as it turns out, happiness isn't a size. And I wasted far too many years believing that it was. Now I'm not going to stop letting people know that they deserve happiness exactly as they are. They deserve to live now, not 10 pounds from now. They deserve that mental freedom. So to every person reading this: I hope you get your freedom too, however it might look. I'll be cheering you on every step of the way. ????? P.s. these are all comments I received on my last before/after picture, luckily for me, they just make me want to keep going even more ?

A post shared by Megan Jayne Crabbe ? (@bodyposipanda) on Feb 25, 2017 at 12:52pm PST

In the accompanying caption, Megan explained exactly why she's found happiness now she's heavier. She wrote: "I've gained mental freedom. I've gained self love. I've gained my life back after so many years of believing that I wasn't worthy of living it because of how my body looked."

She continued by encouraging her followers to stop "chasing washboard abs" and "dropping numbers on the scale" in order to be content with life as "weight loss does not cure self hatred". Unfortunately, the post - which appeared on her Instagram account last month - attracted some nasty comments with people rushing to slam the 24 year old for "ruining" her body by gaining weight.

Rather than keep silent in the hope the trolls would eventually get bored and shut up, Megan clapped back in the best way by outing them in a second side-by-side post of her pre-and-post weight gain figure on her Instagram page. She captioned the image with a list of some of the insults she'd had thrown at, complete with comebacks. One read: "Wait so you just decided to RUIN your body? Nah, I just stopped torturing myself every day for not fitting an image I was never supposed to be."

Another read: "But you look so much healthier to me before. That's funny, you looked so much more intelligent to me before you equated health with weight and forgot that mental health is health too."

On the left is me 2 1/2 years ago, just before I found body positivity, and on the right is me today. You'll probably notice the most obvious thing I've gained between these two pictures: weight. But there are so many other things I've gained as well. I've gained mental freedom. I've gained self love. I've gained my life back after so many years of believing that I wasn't worthy of living it because of how my body looked. I know the world wants you to believe that the less you weigh the happier you'll be. I know I'm supposed to feel ashamed of this transformation. I'm supposed to vow to lose the weight, I'm supposed to spend my life chasing the body on the left and buying into the idea that I'll be more valuable once I get there. But I'm not going to do that. Instead I'm going to tell you what I learnt from all those wasted years chasing washboard abs and dropping numbers on the scale: happiness is not a size. Weight loss does not cure self hatred. Mental health matters more than a dress size does. And we are all so worthy of self love exactly as we are. It's time we took a stand and refused to keep hurting ourselves in the pursuit of a 'perfect' body that doesn't even exist. It's time for us to realise that we're already good enough. It's time for us to take our power back. ?????

A post shared by Megan Jayne Crabbe ? (@bodyposipanda) on Jan 29, 2017 at 12:11pm PST

Megan went on to disclose details of the eating disorder she suffered as a teenager which "nearly killed" her and that it was her unhealthy habit of starving herself and "obsessively working out for hours everyday" that motivated her to gain weight. But the most poignant motivational statement the blogger made in her online clap back is that "happiness isn't a size" and that's something we should all take on board.

Megan finished with some words of advice for women everywhere, writing: "To every person reading this: I hope you get your freedom too, however it might look. I'll be cheering you on every step of the way. "

What do you make of Megan's body transformation? Let us know @soFeminineUK

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