#SideProfileSelfie Is The Viral Movement That Is Making Us Love Our Noses

We’re seeing a shift when it comes to body-positivity, that’s for sure. Women are busting out their true, real, beautiful selves by posting pictures of their cellulite, freckled skin, saggy boobs, and postpartum bodies, and proudly displaying them in their true, unfiltered glory.

And we love them for it. It’s a strong force; we are done feeling sorry for ourselves because we don’t match up to 1% of the population and the unrealistic standards that are flashed before us in the media every damn day.

Women are changing their definition of beautiful and blazing a new path for our young girls about what it means to embrace ourselves– flaws and all.

And thanks to badass women, like writer Radhika Sanghani and her #SideProfileSelfie movement, our noses and profiles are now included in this refreshing change.

http://www.twitter.com/radhikasanghani/status/969543613825847296

Sanghani’s notes that while we are seeing a lot of positive movement as far as how women view their bodies, we are leaving something out: our noses. Many of us still feel the need to bend and angle our faces a certain way in front of the camera in order to hide the size or shape of our nose.

And many of us feel highly insecure about our side profiles especially.

I’m one of them, I hate to admit, but I am. My daughter took this picture of my new tattoo, something I was so excited about and I almost didn’t post this picture because my nose looks like a ski slope. I absolutely hate it.

But I did it anyway because I didn’t want to tell her the reason I wasn’t posting that picture — my daughter has my nose, after all. I got it from my handsome father and it’s not going anywhere. How can I expect her to embrace her whole self if I can’t? So, I posted the picture. Even though it makes me cringe.

I reached out to some of the other Scary Mommy staff members asking them to share their #SideProfileSelfies, and this is what they had to say about themselves:

Christine says she was hit with a dodge ball right in the nose when she was 10, and it rearranged her cartilage. “I have a bump on it now and I always feel like Wicked Witch of the West.”

Rita thinks her nose is too sharp and pointy.

Scary Mommy editor, Samantha, says she’s always loathed her side profile as she feels self-conscious of her bumpy, Italian nose.

After sharing this picture with me, Wendy said how everyone always says how much they love this, but she hates it — all because of her nose.

But while exchanging photos and talking, we all saw things in each other that we weren’t able to see in ourselves: We saw beauty, and grace, and strong confident women. We weren’t seeing anything that was too big, pointy, crooked, or wrong.

It’s pretty amazing the way we view ourselves, isn’t it? We certainly are our own harshest critic.

How many photo opportunities have we avoided all because of our nose? I’m guessing a ton.

Sanghani is inspiring other women around the world to feel more confident with the nose they were born with as they are now posting pictures of their #SideProfilesSelfie without shame.

It wasn’t easy though, Sanghani admits she’s always hated her profile and how scary it was to post it out there for the world to see and told Today “Even though I’ve grown to love my nose in recent months it still felt really scary to post a photo of it, in all its big crooked glory, on social media.”

She goes on to say she was worried about how men from her past would feel about her now after seeing these photos.

Of course my first thought is, Who gives a shit about them? But I realize it’s easy for me to say that because I think she’s beautiful. But if I’m being really honest, that’s one of the first things I would think about too. We are all human and our insecurities make us feel unbelievably vulnerable, especially around those we are attracted to.

But see what happens when we do something we are afraid of? When we own ourselves instead of trying to put a mask on? It’s so damn attractive and empowering. Now, Sanghani has inspired other women to stand up and accept themselves too.

Women all over are saying this movement has given them new found confidence about something they have been insecure about their whole damn life — that’s just too long. And it goes to show we can be either be insecure about our flaws, or we can start a fucking movement and invite others along for the ride, to shed themselves of fear and self-doubt they’ve been living with their whole lives.

Let’s see those side profiles, ladies & gents. You’re all beautiful.

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