Female empowerment has been a topic high on the agenda in Australia this month, and so it should.
First, we had Bachelorette Sam Frost posting a no-makeup selfie setting an example for her young fans, asking them to “love yourself, be yourself, just the way you are”.
Then we had model and designer Natasha Oakley repost a frank and honest photo of herself that had received negative comments on her own swimwear label’s account -- calling out the fat-shamers and setting an example for women everywhere to “rock what they’ve got.”
“The female form is something to be admired and celebrated not criticized,” she wrote.
And on Friday morning, one of Australia’s biggest exports, model, designer and author Robyn Lawley took to social media to respond to a scathing article that took aim at a pregnant Lawley last year, making the ridiculous claim she’d considered an abortion because she didn’t want to get stretchmarks.
In response to last year's article, the 26-year-old model posted a picture on Friday morning of herself in her underwear, with her stretch marks visible -- or “badass tiger stripes” as she called them -- to take aim at the gossip site and general pressure on women when it comes to their physical appearance.
Her message was loud, clear and brilliant writing “F*** them, who cares, be you, be loud, be proud. And put your efforts into skills that rely more on your physical self.”
“And to anyone who feels bad about your body especially after a baby, you are a warrior, you created a life inside of you, that's no easy feat.”
While setting the record straight, Lawley who is signed to Bella Model Management and has fronted the likes of Vogue, Elle and Cosmopolitan as well as having contracts with Ralph Lauren and Barneys New York also used her post to express that she is, in fact, pro choice however, she does not support women’s reproductive rights being used for political agenda.
“No one likes to get abortion but if your (sic) not prepared their(sic) should be no judgement into getting one,” she wrote.
Not only was Lawley appalled that such rubbish was published, but the fact there was no journalist’s name to the article that received over 500 abusive comments angered her even more -- leading her to personally tweet the author of the gossip website to “have a heart”.
“I'm familiar with being bullied, once for not having a thigh gap (insert face palm) but to bully me for something I never said, not to mention my decision would need to be more based on the fact that I will be taking care of someone's life, a heavy decision to make, would never rest on getting stretch marks alone,” she wrote.
“As for my stretch marks I knew they were coming and as they're fading into white ( like all my others) I thought I might capture them. Because they are some bad ass #tigerstripes (sic). And I earned them,” she continued.