#SaggyBoobsMatter: This Movement Encourages Women To Love Their Saggy Boobs

Beauty standards are being flipped on their axis. Black women are the headhunters of the beauty revolution, reminding us all of our beauty that exists despite the patriarchal ideas that have shaped the standards for so long. Breasts are synonymous with woman, but their beauty and desirability are often minimized when they are not the right shape, the ideal size, or the appropriate amount of perkiness. Newsflash: saggy boobs matter.

Chidera Eggerue, also known as The Slumflower, is pushing the agenda of self-love even more forward by embracing and loving her own body just as it is. Chidera is a 23-year-old award-winning British blogger whose focus is on uplifting women, challenging them to love themselves so unapologetically that it becomes the norm. It was the driving force behind the creation of the campaign aptly titled Saggy Boobs Matter.

Chidera made a vow to herself that at the age of 18, she was going to secure her first job and get a boob job. The decision was seeded in her resentment towards her own breasts; bra shopping became a strain on her spirit, and she desperately wanted change. Chidera told BuzzFeed News:

"A lack of representation of saggy-looking boobs when I used to go bra shopping in M&S [as a young teenager] made me realise that something is wrong with the way the world views women's bodies."

She never got the boob job. Instead, Chidera decided to stop wearing a bra and began her journey to self-acceptance and ultimate self-love. It was through learning to accept her body and recognize how beautiful she is through empowering affirmations and body positivity that she was able to become a voice for other women.

The Saggy Boobs Matter movement was created out of necessity. Women are taught to believe that perfection is the definition of beauty and anything that doesn't match that is less than. But Chidera wanted to defy the norm.

She believes that there is a conversation to be had about body hang ups and how women can embrace them.

"Through creating #SaggyBoobsMatter, I have been able to help women articulate their own body image hang ups – especially slim women who don't really know where they stand in the body positivity movement. Saggy boobs are underrepresented. Being underrepresented makes you feel alien to society. This fosters insecurities in people who don't have the mental strength to see value in themselves beyond other people's standards."

Women - and men - are taking to the movement and rejoicing. Chidera has been receiving messages from women all over the world who have thanked her for starting the movement and being present for a demographic of women who are often body shamed and overlooked.

"I've had breastfeeding mothers message me telling me that this movement has helped them in their postpartum journey, and that, for me, is so important because the people who are being hateful towards this movement have conveniently forgotten that a large majority of them were breastfed on saggy boobs."

Though Chidera has looked into the eye of body shaming and cyberbullying, she has used these experiences as a catalyst to keep pushing her message. Putting yourself out there on the internet is not an easy feat, but The Slumflower has used her platform to give women a voice to speak up about their bodies and know the intention behind their creation.

"For the women who look like me: Your saggy boobs matter. And from now until you die, what's going to matter, ultimately, is your character. Sometimes people are scared of what they haven't been taught to accept. We still have to exist loudly, though."

Chidera's message to women is simple: we are made with intention and our bodies are not a mistake.

Whichever way you please, empower yourself to believe that you are beautiful despite whatever hang up you have about your body.

In all of our womanness, we are already godly. We possess a magic that cannot be touched. Chidera's movement is a prime example of the power that we possess once we love ourselves fiercely, unapologetically, and validate ourselves.