Woman praised after turning stretch marks into glitter stripes for a very inspiring reason

A woman who turned stretch marks into glitter stripes, in a bid to inspire others to love themselves for who they are, has been praised on social media for her 'beautiful' work.

Sara Shakeel shared the images on social media, and quickly received praise from other women who've struggled with their stretch marks in the past, who said her work was 'amazing' and 'powerful'.

Posting the image on her Instagram page, Sara wrote in the caption: 'A beautiful follower wanted me to make an artwork out of her! Let her know she looks amazing! Glitter no glitter!'

Speaking to HuffPost UK, the artist explained how she decided to create the images when a friend she had photographed asked to Photoshop out any stretch marks.

'That made me sad because I too have a lot of them myself, including cellulite. So with all that in mind I made glitter and space stretch marks. I'll be honest before even uploading them I was wondering why would anyone be interested in my stretch marks,' she told the publication.

'Little did I know the world needed this empowerment and some amazing ladies were already on that mission. I am so glad I put that [first photo] up.'

After sharing the first picture, the artist's page was inundated with comments from people praising her for the inspiring image.

One follower wrote: 'This is so amazing Naim @naimitaj being a big girl I know all too well what emotional and physical scarring stretchmarks bring. I've had them for ever. Recently I've started to get used to them and not be afraid and ashamed. It's all a journey!'

A second commented: 'You 👏🏻 are👏🏻incredible👏🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻 this👏🏻is 👏🏻beautiful👏🏻wonderful👏🏻amazing👏🏻powerful👏🏻all of the good words!!! I love this with my whole heart!!! I realize this sounds dramatic but I'm dead ass serious this is so beautiful. Bless your sweet brain for having this idea. Amazing!!!'

The woman Sara photographed, Naim, also commented in the picture to respond to everyone's positive feedback, saying it also took a long time for her to learn to love herself.

'I was ashamed for years too! It took so much for me to start loving my skin the way it is, and after Sara made this collage of me I can't even believe this is real. I'm going to actually put glitter in the same way she has and share a picture to honour her work 😍,' Naim said.

She added: 'It's a struggle until we realise literally everyone has them!! It's not a big deal at all and only society and the media has conditioned women to think we have to be perfect to be beautiful.'