Screw Love Island bodies – I’m taking my cellulite and fat rolls round rainy London in my knickers to show what real women look like

I SPENT today in my underwear riding round London on an open top double decker bus in a move SO shocking that the me of ten years ago would have collapsed at the idea of it.

Because that me vehemently loathed the hunk of flesh she carted around with her, and did everything in her power to hide it from the world.

My stomach in particular has always been a source of great shame for me and most photos from my teenage years show me with my arms wrapped firmly around my midriff.

This has been a difficult habit to give up. Looking down at the soft rolls of my stomach now the familiar feelings of shame come to the surface and instinctively I feel my arms twitching to protect it from the world’s judging eyes.

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Curvy Kate’s 10th Birthday Boob Bus celebrating 10 years of supporting boobs and body diversity[/caption]

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The ladies pose in their underwear outside the bus[/caption]

But I refrain, because that’s not what today is about. Today is about trying to tackle Britain’s body confidence crisis, and celebrating the female body in whatever form it comes.

For every episode of Love Island that airs, for every time someone uses FaceTune on an Instagram picture, those fighting to show REAL women must work even harder.

Seeing women like Lauren Goodger posting heavily filtered images on a daily basis, reeks havoc on the self esteem of young people.

Plastic surgery is more popular than ever

Thanks in part to the #bodypositive movement on Instagram, to the changing scene of advertising and to the realisation that there is so much to me than what I look like, I have been able to embrace my flaws

And although I have a socially acceptable (if only I could shift that pesky cellulite) size 10 body, I’m in the minority.

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Real women show off their curves on the boob bus[/caption]

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The women rode through central London in their undies[/caption]

For every real Instagram post of mine, for every stomach roll or thigh dimple I upload, there are hundreds photoshopped masterpieces being shared.

Plastic surgery is more popular than ever before and the numbers of those suffering as a result of self harm and eating disorders at a record high.

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One of the body positive models poses by a bus stop[/caption]

Self love is something that most women are still to find. Even my friends, the girls I used to look to when I was at my unhappiest as being “perfection”, now admit insecurities to me that I could never have imagined they’d have.

That I, imperfections included, have begun loudly celebrating my body has, I suspect, come as a surprise to most of them. It’s come as a surprise to me too, to be fair.

The body positivity movement and campaigns like I am a part of today might be gaining momentum but the beast that they are up against gains strength every day.

There is more body positivity than ever before, but only because we are in the grips of a nation-wide body confidence crisis.

So while sitting on an open top bus with plus size brand Curvy Kate in the rain wasn’t bravery like that displayed by bomb disposal experts, it took all the courage I could muster.

While some older ladies worried we were cold, most people stopped to take pictures of us – and I’m just glad group of women being apologetically themselves made most people smile.