The Internet is Freaking Out Over Her Body Positive Selfie

She asks, “Why does size matter?” (Photo: Instagram/MarOrtiz)

A selfie is making the rounds on Facebook, and it exactly doesn’t follow the usual formula.

In it, Big Women: Big Love cast member Mar Ortiz poses in front of a mirror in black tights rolled down to one thigh with her shirt tied up, showing off her stomach, love handles and all.

“Someone told me "Mar you’re losing weight….” I said “Really? You think so? I eat a burger, fries and pizza like everyday…,” Ortiz wrote. “Why does size matter? Big or small…. I love my LOVE handles! I don’t care about having abs or eating a salad everyday. I do believe in taking healthier days and balance. I #‎celebratemysize everyday! I love my curves and body. If I want to lose weight, it will be a personal choice and it shouldn’t matter to anyone else but me.”

(Photo: Facebook/marortizmusic)

Related: How To Ditch Body Anxiety, From a 27-Year-Old Nudist

It quickly went viral, nabbing nearly 93,000 likes and more than 32,000 shares.

Ortiz tells Yahoo Health that she decided to take the photo after she came home from having dinner with a friend. “As I was getting ready to get in my PJs, I looked in the mirror and felt beautiful and content with what I saw,” she says. “I wanted to share it with my followers [but] I had no idea who I would inspire or that my post would go viral.”

Some online commenters accused Ortiz of “glorifying obesity,” a reaction that she finds confusing. “I don’t understand the hatred for loving myself,” she says. But overall, the response was largely positive, which Ortiz calls “overwhelming and amazing.”

Related: YouTube Star Hannah Hart’s Biggest Body Insecurities — And How She Overcame Them

Why do photos like this resonate so much with us? It’s because many Americans have a love-hate relationship with the need to look attractive and feel sexy, psychologist Paul Coleman, PsyD, tells Yahoo Health.

“They want to improve their looks as a way to seek acceptance and feel worthwhile and yet they resent not being acceptable just the way they are,” he says. “They also know that keeping up one’s looks through exercise, diet, fashionable clothing, etc. is a never-ending job that only gets more arduous with age.”

When someone like Ortiz accepts herself the way she is and appears to have no negative judgments about her weight or appearance, she inspires people who constantly judge themselves harshly because they don’t wear a small dress size, he explains.

Related: Why I Start Every Day With a Full Body Selfie

Ortiz’s photos also just sucks us in, licensed clinical psychologist Alicia H. Clark, PsyD, tells Yahoo Health. “Not only is this compelling to watch — her radical rejection of society’s beauty standard —but her post implicitly asks us to reconsider our social norms, and the lengths we go to to meet them, and gives us permission to accept ourselves,” says Clark.

Of course, most people don’t fit the “ideal” body type: According to research published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, the majority of Americans are now considered overweight or obese.

As for the negative comments, Coleman says it’s partly due to the fact that there are two issues being raised, not one. The main issue is how we judge ourselves according to standards that are superficial. But the other is that obesity is not healthy, which some people are reacting to.

“The negative people are, for the most part, simply emphasizing the harsher side of the issue — the side that just about everyone else thinks but hates to think that way,” Coleman says.

As for the critics, Ortiz doesn’t seem to care. She posted another, similar photo on Instagram after her original picture with the caption, “Ladies always love yourself! To hell with what anyone thinks!!!”

Body-Peace Resolution is Yahoo Health’s January initiative to motivate you to pursue wellness goals that are not vanity-driven, but that strive for more meaningful outcomes. We’re talking strength, mental fitness, self-acceptance — true and total body peace. Our big hope: This month of resolutions will inspire a body-peace revolution. Want to join us? Start by sharing your own body-positive moments on social media using the hashtag #bodypeaceresolution.

Let’s keep in touch! Follow Yahoo Health on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.