All that glitters is gold, according to collage artist, Sara Shakeel. Even stretch marks that appear after frustrating, happy or even life changing moments. Every woman, and even a lot of men, have them post puberty, and yet we hide them away like an embarrassing tattoo. Sara is changing the stigma and covering them, instead, with glittery, sparkly goodness! Sara's portfolio (@sarashakeel) has always dabbled in creating an alternate reality - diamond shards for a tongue, ferris wheels floating on clouds and roses painting cityscapes. This time she has edited the human body with a message much closer to home. Sara recently put the word out for her followers to send through images of their own bodies that she would edit into works of art. "Overwhelmed", was her response and she says, "the best part", is that men were sending requests too. What is so great about this artistic movement gaining traction on Instagram (#glitterstretchmarks) is that almost everyone can relate to it! From the age of 8, when I was administered steroid injections for medical treatment, stretch marks and feeling ashamed of them has always been on my mind. It wasn't until I was 16 years old that I realised they were something every grown woman has on their body and that hiding them under board shorts at the beach or in the pool was really damaging my style rep.
Thanks to Sara's glitter stripe goddesses I can definitely relate to how she is feeling - "I have never felt so powerful and liberated and so f*cking proud of my stretch marks". Keep doing you, Sara, stretch marks and all!
1 Comment
Jenni
21/11/2017 09:56:28 pm
A great piece of writing..thanks for broaching the subject
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