The Truth Behind The "Perfect" Selfie

Last week I shared an image of myself in my granny pants and labelled it as "behind the scenes of the "perfect" selfie". It went viral.

Like, crazy viral...

Who knew my granny pants would have such an effect on the world, right?

But all jokes aside, I wanted to share with you how I feel about the world's reaction.

For one I just need to say this - WOW!!!!! What just happened?!?!

You have no idea how hard it was to share that image. I am NOT used to prancing around in my granny pants for the whole world to see, I can tell you that! What I mean is that I do prance around in my knickers when I am at home with my kids and husband, but NOT for the whole world to see.

Those who know me well know that I don't think I look "perfect" (whatever the hell that means anyway). Like most humans, there are parts of my body that I don't adore and would like to change (but I love cake too much so I f*ck that). Bottom line is, showing the whole world my mum-tum, wide hips, bingo arms etc DID NOT COME EASY.

And now for the shocking part...

You have no idea how many people wrote to me following me posting that image! Hundreds in not thousands of people wrote in, to either thank me because they felt the image helped them gain some confidence and love themselves more (WOW!!!!!!), OR to say that in their opinion the real image was more attractive than the "perfect" one.

Now I have to tell you - the first person that said that I thought to myself 'that's kind, they're trying to make me feel better, that's really lovely'. But then more people said it, and more, and more until I started to think 'hang on a minute, maybe they actually mean it?'

So I went back to the image and looked at it again, and that's when it hit me.

We see ourselves very differently from how others see us. Not sure why, but something in our nature makes us focus on our so-called flaws. On those little things that we don't like.

But when other people look at us (especially those who love us), they see the good things, they focus on how they feel towards us and how we make them feel about themselves - so what they see is the beauty.

Because the thing is this - BEAUTY has absolutely NOTHING to do with looks. It is NOT about smooth skin, or flat tummies, long legs or perky books. It is about HEART and being real and vulnerable enough to let people see that.

And THAT is the most beautiful thing of all.

We live in a strange world where looks are so important and on everyone's mind all the time. You meet someone you haven't seen in a while and the first thing you comment about is how they look - "you changed your hair style", "I like your shoes", "did you lose weight?".

Why is that? who cares? how does this make the world a better place?

But imagine we actually talked from the heart instead, about how we FEEL, what we are AFRAID of, what MOVES us, what makes us HAPPY and most importantly - what we LOVE.

Imagine what a wonderful world it would be.

Many people wrote in to say that they don't think they are beautiful. That their "real" image would not be as attractive as mine was.

I want to tell you this - I don't know you and I don't know what you look like on the outside. But your messages were so heartfelt, so honest, so real and so very, very BEAUTIFUL. Your heart is the most beautiful thing you own. You don't need to take it to the gym, you don't need to put makeup on it and get it waxed, it is already as perfect as can be and you must never forget that.

I can see your heart and I want to thank you for seeing mine, I really appreciate it.

And finally, please remember this:

"Social media is full of shit. You are beautiful just the way you are. And there is nothing sexier than being REAL".

#REALisSexy