As you might know last Wednesday this time of the night a lot of us bloggers, plus size tweeters, instagramers and so on used social media to say what we really thought of Jamelia's statement on tv the day before as you can read in my post HERE. We were so many taking part in this lovely campaign started by Debz so that we trended in second place for the UK last week and the next day it was all over media. HERE is a post from The Mirror where I was featured.

With this blogging challenge we wanted to try and do something similar as we did last week, so hopefully a lot of you (plus size or skinny as Jamelia slagged everyone over a size 20 and under a size 6 off and it is just as bad to attack someone who struggle to put on weight or are natural very petite) will continue to use the hash tag and make a statement that it is not ok to segregate groups of people as segregation was abolished a long time ago, so why should it be ok to keep it up with people that are fat/very slim?

All my grown up life I have been fat! Ever since I was about 21 I have been over a size 18 and I remember when I lived in Norway I was following so called fashion rules religiously and didn't venture outside their boundaries. Thinking back now, this made me feel suppressed and clothes shopping was a task that was worse than going to the dentist having your tooth pulled out!! We didn't have much plus size clothing in Norway and with the fashion rules it wasn't much that was left for me to wear.

I have few photos of me from back then, but here are a couple







Quite boring and muted colours and shapes. And to be honest, I look so unhappy. I was confident in myself, but still I lived by rules that has no sense what so ever.

So therefore let us kill some of these rules once and for all!!

First of all I want to show WHY plus size people, slim people, in between people and actually anyone or anything that want to wear it, should wear COLOURS!

Yesterday when I came home from work I saw a post on Facebook that caught my eye. It was my blogging friend Debz who had taken initiative to starting a hashtag as a counterweight to Jamelia's opinions on Loose Women Tuesday where she said that plus size women shouldn't be allowed to shop in high street stores. Rather go to specialist shops. People are allowed to have their opinions, but speaking with such ignorance on national TV is beyond me. If she had been antagonising other groups of the society she would have been into so much trouble, but since she is attacking us fatties it is fine. At least that is what it seems like. I'm not new to fatshaming and I'm sure that most of have heard it all before, both from health care professionals to nasty comments on the street. It's like we are some sort of monsters that have no rights.



However I'm not going to make this post negatively loaded, I'm going to turn it into something very positive. A celebration to all the beautiful women out there no matter what size, that might find it a problem to shop in high street stores for whatever reason. It can be that you are handicapped and sitting in a wheel chair, being so petite that you have to buy shoes and clothes in the children's section, that you are suffering from certain illnesses that makes your body change or even on medication that makes your body change. There are many reasons why you might be a size 2 or a size 32!!

And that is why it was so important that #WeAreTheThey was created,  cause the word "they" is so nondescript and easy to use cause it doesn't single out anyone. I'm sure that most of you reading this is either a fat person or most probably you know someone who is fat so you can relate to the dilemma it is being singled out for being fat. So Debz thought behind it was to let everyone see the faces behind the "they" that Jamelia was talking about.



The solidarity shown last night was amazing and I'm thankful to Debz for starting this campaign and our solidarity with each other is enormous and it makes me rather emotional. So many women, in all sizes stood up to the body shaming hysteria that we are surrounded by and told their stories and to fend their corners as it is each of our own choices how we want to live our lives. Healthy or not is not the question, it is time to stop being such petty creatures and let everyone think for themselves. What is important is that people feel good about themselves whatever size, and it is actually quite a lot of people out there that are truly happy even if they are a size 24 or 32. We are individuals with individual needs and choices, so people should try and accept that.



I felt like giving each and everyone of you a massive hug, but I can't so I decided to fill this post with lovely photos of some of you wonderful people that I have been so fortunate getting to know for the past couple of years. Love you all.

Xxx 

sorry the creases ;)

After the lunch I needed to get rid of some of the calories I had just eaten as I had a creamy chese sauce and pasta. Yum yum!!!
Xxx

Do you ever shop from online stores abroad? What are your experiences?