Bachelor alum Bekah Martinez is giving herself the damn rose. In a candid Instagram post, Martinez opened up about deciding not to shave her legs for a red carpet appearance — and described the experience as an act of self-love.
“This may sound really dumb, but it was a big deal for me,” Martinez wrote. “I’ve finally gotten to the point where I feel (almost) totally comfortable like this.”
Martinez went on to explain that she started stealing her mom’s razor and shaving her body hair at age nine after she was teased at school. She used to “pray” to be hairless, and “panic” every time she had to wear a swimsuit. Martinez decided to make a change, though, in 2018.
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“When I got pregnant, I decided to work to overcome this insecurity,” she wrote. “It’s not about ‘not believing in shaving’, it’s about believing I AM BEAUTIFUL, ATTRACTIVE AND ‘FEMININE’ NO MATTER WHERE I HAVE HAIR ON MY BODY. It’s about showing girls you don’t have to listen when society tells you your natural features are ugly or gross.”
This isn’t the first time Martinez has talked about body hair on the ’gram. Back in November, she shared in a story that she stopped shaving her armpits, and then her legs. “I’m VERY hairy even compared to most dudes and it’s really not easy. I still feel very self-conscious most of the time and I find myself avoiding shorts and skirts,” she wrote. “But I want to work past it. And I don’t want my daughters growing up with the same crippling insecurity over something so natural, or my sons being one of the boys who made fun of me.”
After sharing her red carpet story, Martinez responded to several comments from women facing similar insecurities. One high school student admitted she felt pressured to shave her legs to fit in, but that Martinez had inspired her to ditch the razor. Another woman in her 30s shared that she had recently decided to stop fearing judgement from her extended family. To both, Martinez wrote, “You go girl!”
Martinez had one last word of advice: don’t let the comments get to you. Because at the end of the day, “if someone has a problem with the way you look, that’s an issue with THEIR mentality,” she concluded, “not YOUR body.”