Creative living, and body image struggles.

The idea for flab came to me this summer out of nowhere. I hadn’t asked for it, but I listened to it and stayed up late each night for a week creating it. By the end of the year, I reached my goal of creating 10 issues.

Along the way, I doubled the size of this community. I reconnected with people I had fallen out of touch with. Women I’ve never met subscribed. I heard from subscribers after each issue that they had a similar experience and were working through some of the same issues.

Something special was created. Your warm response showed me that creating a place free of images of other’s bodies, that shared personal stories of body image and ED recovery, alongside wellness advice without undertones of diet culture was in demand.

Together, we began the work of shifting the cultural narrative around body image and wellness. And we’re just getting started.

This year, instead of another health-minded goal like “drink more water” (and let’s be real, that’s an improvement over the voice in the back of my head that I’m ignoring, who is snarkily telling me I need to “lose the baby weight” this year), I’m resolving to write — and create — like it matters.

Because it does. To someone, maybe just me, but to someone, it matters.

Am I scared no one will read this? Yes.

Am I embarrassed that a certain person will read this? Yes.

Am I afraid that it’s all been said before, and I have nothing valuable to add? Yes.

Am I worried my words will be used against me, or that I’ll change my POV? Yes.

But fear is boring. It’s the most basic, primal thing about us humans.

So instead, I ask:

Am I driven when people reach out to tell me flab has helped them? Yes!

Do I feel a sense of purpose that powers me through another diaper change? Yes!

Am I filled with peace when I put a story on paper? Hell, yes!

Creating isn’t for a special few, it’s something we’re all born to do. For me, writing is the best way to bring beauty into this world and it gives me access to clarity that I can’t seem to access through any other expression.

“Creativity is sacred, and it is not sacred. What we make matters enormously, and it doesn’t matter at all. We are terrified, and we are brave. Art is a crushing chore and a wonderful privilege. Make space for all these paradoxes to be equally true in your soul and you can make anything.”

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