When 19-year-old Michelle Rogers posted a photo of herself in a black bodysuit and jeans in February, the caption that accompanied the photo was an inspiring message about wearing whatever makes you feel confident.
Over the last few months, Rogers continued to post photos from the shoot with encouraging tributes about how far she's come on her journey toward body acceptance. But even the most confident advocates have days where they don't feel great about themselves.
That's why Rogers decided to share a side-by-side comparison of the photo and the original, full length picture in a more recent post.
"I was hiding a good portion of my body that I was still insecure about," Rogers told TODAY.
"I posted this photo a few weeks ago, and before I could post the full photo, I cropped my belly and thighs out," she wrote in the caption. "Sometimes it's easier to just edit and crop a photo and tack a inspirational caption saying you love yourself when you really weren't feeling it."
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Since this realization, Rogers made a commitment to herself and her followers to fully embrace her body as is.
"I'm going to be as genuine and real as I can," Rogers said. "I don't have to hide the lower half of my body because it's a lot bigger ... there's no reason to be hiding it."
Embracing the days when she feels great has become part of Rogers' self-care routine, but when it comes to the days when she doesn't feel so great — Rogers has a plan.
"I write down things that I've achieved personally and what I plan on achieving," she said. It helps her reflect on the really cool and incredible things she's done "by myself, for myself."
Just one of those many accomplishments is helping her followers along their own self-love journeys.
"I get messages a lot from people saying that they look up to me and I've changed the way they look at themselves," Rogers said. "That literally makes me cry every time."
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She vowed to stop intentionally cropping or altering any of the photos as a reminder to herself and her followers that "they have no reason to hide who they are. They're beautiful no matter what."