Portuguese model Sara Sampaio spent years walking runways for Victoria’s Secret. Millions of people saw her as the very definition of the perfect body.
That is why no one expected what she did one day in February 2021.
It all started with a photo. Sampaio posted it for Valentine’s Day, in lingerie, and cruel comments about her body poured in. Instead of deleting the photo or staying silent, she recorded a video.
In the recording, she is seen sitting, then standing, then bending over. With each change of posture, her abdomen transforms: folds, lines, curves, cellulite that the runway never showed appear. The same woman, ten different bodies, depending on the angle and the light.
At the end, she spoke without sugarcoating her words: she asked people to stop commenting on other people’s bodies. She signed the message with two simple words: “With love, Sara”.
The video went viral within hours. Women all over the world shared it as their own, because they recognized themselves in those folds.
A Victoria’s Secret model, the same one many used as a measuring stick, had shown that this standard does not exist outside of a well-positioned pose and camera.
Sometimes all it takes is changing position to change your perspective.
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