we take nudity waaaaaay too seriously. it’s unfortunate that we live in a society where we (particularly females) feel so ashamed of our bodies, due to unrealistic depictions of “normal shapes” in the media, that we try to hide something as natural as our biological form. luckily, we have totally awesome women like LENA DUNHAM, who is shakin’ her gorgeous, realistic shape all over HBO these days.

whether you have trouble being naked alone in your house, in front of friends or romantic lovahhzz, i say that it’s time to get reconnected with that authentic bod of yours.

here is a paragraph from a letter that my wicked friend wrote to me, casually updating me on the awesomeness that is her life.

“So I just did something very different this morning.. at the beginning of the school year I emailed the fine arts department and asked them if they needed any models. Sure enough they did. So today was my debut at the studio presenting myself in nothing but my birthday suit. Yes NAKED! I thought I was going to be wayyy more nervous that I actual was, but I felt oddly calm and comfortable. There was only about 10 people in the class, one being a boy. But they were all respectful and professional. I mean, the first time I stripped off my bath robe, I felt very vulnerable, but that feeling quickly disappeared because I had to start focusing on my poses. So first, to warm up the artists hands I do 30 second poses. These are normal more action positions. I did ballerina style and sport style poses. I didn’t really have time to think about what the students were thinking because I was busy counting and figuring out where I was going to move my body next. After that we moved onto 15 minute poses. I liked these ones because there weren’t that long. The hardest one was the hour pose (broken down int 2 30 min sections) But I was lying down on these pillow and the room was dimly lit and about 5 min into it, I started falling asleep. My eyes were getting sooo heave, my head was bobbing. I kept telling myself to stay awake!..but I just couldn’t. I woke up to some of the girls giggling and then I realized I really needed to get back to business. So yea, I was literally falling asleep and so was my body. Overall though I was happy with how everything went, and I am definitely doing it again. Aaand it was pretty cool to walk around and see how everyones drawings looked. It was neat to see the different ways people saw me and depicted me in their drawings. If you ever want to get that much more comfortable with your body, do something different and make some money, I highly suggest becoming a model. Aaand I feel that you would be good at it.. you were very comfortable walking around at Lumina.”

i’m not saying that we should all boycott clothes and storm the streets junk-first, or that everyone should be expected to strip down for a room of strangers, and then proceed to let them draw your naked bodies…long enough for you to fall asleep?? but the point of this little excerpt is that bodies, no matter what they look like, are a completely normal thing. in the case of this letter, they are a form of art! being more open about your body can help dissolve shame and therefore can increase confidence.

so get naked today.