Chiquis Posted a Photo Flaunting Her Cellulite, and I’ve Never Felt More Identified in My Life

Chiquis is out here doing a great service for curvy Latinas — and all curvy women, really — by posting a gorgeous photo on Instagram flaunting her cellulite, and pretty much proving everyone's perfect as they are.

I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who's ever felt the pressure of looking "perfect." I come from a culture where beauty is so venerated, yet we tend to adhere to European beauty standards which pretty much negate the fact that our ancestors are African and most of us inherited their curves — among many other beautiful traits.

I think I was probably in the fourth grade when I realized I had cellulite. I saw it as something I "had to get rid of" since I saw all the commercials from all the clínicas de estética promoting different treatments to eliminate it, and overheard conversations between my mom and her friends, and even between female teachers at school.

Never in my life was I told that most women have cellulite, and you don't have to be a certain body type to get it. Yes, there are ways you can control it and decrease the appearance of it, like drinking a lot of water, improving the types of foods you consume, exercising, or exploring treatments that will help speed up the process. But at first, I was under the impression I had cellulite because I was overweight, which made me feel terrible because I was 9, and there I was already starting to feel like I wasn't enough, that this "thing" that all of the sudden appeared on my body was some sort of death sentence to my beauty, and that now every kid in my class was going to make fun of me for it.

It took me years of yo-yo dieting, failed attempts with crazy regimes that would pretty much starve me, and incompetent doctors telling me I should be X weight based on my height without taking into consideration my body composition, to realize that no two bodies are the same. If I had actually gone down to the weight doctors recommended, I would've most likely looked like a corpse, which is definitely not a good look.

It took me years to internalize what Chiquis so smartly shared on her Instagram along with her gorgeous photo: "This is me, cellulite and all. Take it or leave it! Either way, I love myself." She went on to add, "An empowered woman is one who loves herself as she is, with her virtues and defects… but who is also humble and conscious enough to make the necessary changes that are required to improve in all aspects," she wrote in Spanish.

Chiquis is doing positive things to improve her lifestyle. She's trying the keto diet, and even wrote a book with Latin recipes made keto-friendly, "Chiquis Keto," coming out in April. She's working out with trainer Sarah Koudouzian, who included her workout advice in Chiqui's book, and she's not letting the haters get the best of her.

I see her, I appreciate her advocating for health rather than a specific body type, and if it just so happens that you have a little cellulite, you can embrace it and celebrate it the way that she did.