Keeping it Real

When I read this post by runner Lauren Fleshman, I knew I had to share it with you…especially given its title "Keeping it Real"  is the same as my post series. 

For those of you not familiar with Lauren, she is a world class runner, Stanford grad and was featured a number of years ago in a fantastic print ad for Nike. 

Anyway, Lauren is sponsored by the Brand Oiselle and walked this fall in their New York runway show. This is the photo that was released after the show. 

Here's the kicker…Lauren had a baby 3 months prior to this photo. You are thinking...What? How?

What she did after this is what I find so refreshing…Lauren posted on her blog under the title "Keeping it Real" the following:

"It’s no cover of Glamour Magazine, but when my pics from the NY Fashion Week Oiselle Runway show were posted, a lot of people commented that it was pretty crazy to have my body change that much in three months. And yeah, it was a little crazy but in real life, people don’t walk around spray tanned and flexed. Out of the thousands of photos taken at the runway show after all that tanning and primping and posture-holding, one or two of them looked good. A lot of them looked pretty gnarly. Weird facial expressions, lumpy bits, zombie walks…but nobody would ever know…

So in the spirit of Lady Gaga, I want to post some pictures that were taken the same week as the Runway Show, in much less flattering positions. Who needs “Us Weekly” to capture unflattering images when you can post them on the Internet yourself!

Lauren posted these photos. 

These are the kind of "conversations" that need to be happening to show girls and women that even elite athletes don't have perfectly chiseled bodies, that they too have cellulite and thigh cheese. Women are constantly striving for a body that doesn't exist in real life. We need to start celebrating reality, not what is airbrushed, tanned and flexed. 

Thank you Lauren for "Keeping it Real"!