I have not worn a bikini since my college days, if I’m being honest. It’s strictly one-pieces for me now, although I occasionally look at those “tankinis” and think that I would probably be okay with one of those. That’s my choice and I know “rah rah womanity, body acceptance et cetera” but even when I had an awesome body, I wasn’t entirely comfortable in bikinis. But everybody should do or wear whatever they feel like, which is the message Mindy Kaling is trying to spread. Mindy posted the above photo on her social media with this message:
IDK who needs to hear this but… WEAR A BIKINI IF YOU WANT TO WEAR A BIKINI. You don’t have to be a size 0. Swipe for my storytime and have a great summer ❤️ (edited to say: this accidentally sounds like an ad but it’s not- but I mean, if you want to buy ANY high waisted bikini and wear it, tag a pic so I can comment)!
I’ve seen every episode of The Mindy Project so I can safely say this: Mindy makes truly weird clothing choices work because of her confidence. That’s the lesson: you too can wear a miniskirt or a bikini or a weird dress if you wear it with confidence. I’ve also come to understand at my age that “wearing something with confidence” isn’t the same as “not caring about what people think.” I don’t care what people think about my appearance, but that doesn’t mean I present myself with confidence, you know what I mean? Mindy is confident. I don’t care what people think about me.
Also: it totally helps that Mindy chose a flattering bikini cut! For ladies who are a little bit thicker, a high-waisted bikini bottom is your friend. Also, for girls with a big butt/thick thighs, I would really recommend a full-coverage “boy short” bikini bottom. Those were my favorite kinds of bikinis when I wore them – full coverage on the bottom, then a skimpy top.
Photos courtesy of Instagram, Avalon Red.
Can’t wait for there to be at least one comment about how loving yourself promotes bad health.
They will come, they always do!
😂😂😂😂
Can I just shamelessly plug Late Night? It is one of the best movies have seen in ages. Mindy is such an incredible talent.
Good for her but it also rings false and hollow to me coming from her for obvious reasons. She lies about her own size and has all kinds of issues with her own looks and skin tone.
Perhaps she’s trying to grow and learn to walk her talk. The fact that she’s posing in a bikini in public while saying this makes it ring less hollow.
I would say the same except she posted with a bikini herself in this post, she’s walking the Walk so to speak not just talking the talk
I think those bikinis are so damn cute. Now I want one!
Maybe we should turn this post into an NSV positivity thread.
I started wearing short dresses this year. I spent years thinking my legs didn’t look “right” for dresses (no matter my weight, I hated my legs), but after a couple of years of consistently active lifestyle, I said screw it and bought 5-6 dresses an inch or two above the knee. I have been SO much cooler at hot events-our Wine Walk in 90 degree heat and major humidity would have been miserable in long skirts or pants. Summer dresses are the best!
I’m 39, built very much like Mindy and wear high-waist bikini. And I love them. But, I never would’ve done this five years ago. I was wearing swim dresses and was angry about my body.
But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve developed a IDGAF attitude, and also seeing other women in my size in bikinis really helped my confidence.
I think something about our late 30s gives so many women this attitude! Rock it!
Last time I went to the pool exactly one woman had a picture perfect bikini body. The rest of us ladies were there to have fun in our own widely varied styles and sizes. Don’t miss out over a swimsuit.
Yep, bought my first bikini since I was 16 last week. Can’t wait to rock it. I’m 38 and have definitely developed an IDGAF attitude too.
Same! But shorts for me. I have very thick thighs/hips/butt and never wore shorts because I felt like my legs were too fat. Plus I’m very fair skin, so I’m quite white. The combo kept me from wearing shorts for the last 20 years. This year I said screw it, I wanna be comfortable and I dont care how I look! I’m so much more comfortable! And I’m nowhere near goal weight, IJDGAF anymore. Im sick of struggling.
You go! I bought shorts last year! I spent like 10 years miserable. Never again!
If I could find comfortable shorts, I’d wear them. Where are you getting yours because I find all of them so short and awkward.
Alarmjaguar – I found some cute denim ones at Torrid (I’m an 18/20, and am on the modest side) that come to just above the knee. Walmart (Canada – so I can only assume the US store would have more variety) has a bunch of cute versions with a little stretch that hit just above the knee. They also have shorter versions. There’s some decent stuff out there, but sometimes you have to hunt a bit.
Ok, I had a coupon for one of my favorite disposable stores for bathing suits land in my email. I took it as a sign and ordered a few two pieces. What’s the worst that could happen? Free returns, so if I lose my nerve, they go back.
Good for you! I hope you love them all!
And ITA about the 30s, I just turned 34 and this is my first time saying eff it.
For my money, Mindy is not “a little bit thicker” — especially not in a country where a size 12 or 14 is the average! But she’s right, everyone who wants to wear a bikini should feel free.
How do you get a bikini body? Buy a bikini, put it in your body.
>> How do you get a bikini body? Buy a bikini, put it in your body.
Love this love this love this!
THe most flattering items are the ones you feel good in. People tell me a midi skirt makes my ankles look terrible (…which ankles), but I love them and I wear them and they are my most flattering items for that reason.
So wear tankinis, skimpy bikinis, one piece, 3 pieces, no piece (on a nudist beach only), and enjoy your bodies. On our deathbeds we won’t be regretting the times we wore a bathing suit in public you know?
The only time I regretted wearing a bikini in public was when I was in the ocean and someone yelled shark (it was a little one), and I sprinted out in a string bikini with my girls bouncing! Ouch! 😂
I haven’t worn a swimsuit since high school. I’m not skinny. Just a tall broad woman. But I just do not have the confidence even for a one piece.
I feel ya! I’ve been overweight since the tender age of 11, so I never got the chance to strut myself as a teenage hottie (prolly better in the long run lol!). But I missed out on a lot of summers in the water because of my crippling anxiety and self-consciousness. In my mid 30’s I bought a couple of tankinis and wore them only in my backyard (or balcony at the time) until I built up enough comfort to go down to the pool. Now I finally don’t care and will wear a swimsuit anywhere because (and here’s the secret -) *no one* is paying any attention to me. At all. So it doesn’t matter 😊. Being invisible gave me the freedom to live life the way I want to. So if you want to, throw a bathing suit on your gorgeous bod and hit the water. (I also recommend ‘Things no one tells fat girls’ by Jes Baker – it’s very good for improving you feelings of worth) 😘
I LOVE high-waisted, cheeky bottoms. Or string cheeky bottoms. My mother is always aghast at my bikinis but I don’t care!!!
I need some high-waisted swimsuit help! I’m smaller up top with a small waist and wider hips and big round butt. My stomach is flat, which I’m only saying because I don’t think I care about tummy control, I just like the way high-waisted bikinis look. But I can’t find one that works! If they fit my butt they are usually super baggy around the waist but if they’re the right size for my waist I can’t get them over my butt. Does anyone have any tips on brands?
@bananie try some of the brands or stores that sell Brazilian-style bikinis. Lolli Swim, BoutineLA, Zaful. Sizing will run smaller, and they should be tighter in the waist but have room for your butt! Boom Boom Brazil is a store in Oceanside, CA that I have visited and you can order from them (check out their IG).
Hola Bananie, check out http://www.swimsuitsforall.com. So many amazing suits!
Minnow swimmers or Theif and Bandit make amazing high waisted bikinis.
I absolutely love the look of high waist bikinis but I have a short torso and they aren’t comfortable and don’t hit me in the right spots. Boo wahh for me. I am not in the best shape of my life but totally let it all hang out in a bikini.
Both of those suits are super cute! I like the tankinis, great for being active in the water.
Every body is a beach body!
Yes to tankinis. No more pinching, pulling, stretching, squeezing. Free and comfortable in a tankini.
She looks really cute in both bikinis. I grew up in a beach town and honestly, people on the beach don’t really care that much about what other people look like. That doesn’t mean that I don’t have moments of insecurity but I just remind myself that most people don’t have a perfect body and bikinis are popular right now so it’s what most people wear, regardless. *shrugs*
Living in Hawaii for a few years totally changed my perspective on what makes a ‘bikini body’. Nearly every woman wears them there and DAF and it was awesome.
What I really want to know is where Kaling bought those suits from! They are super cute and I love the one on the right and would wear that now.
They’re tagged when you look at her post on the Instagram app. The first (to the left) is Flagpole, the second (right) is Tory Burch. Happy shopping!
I live in the Caribbean. Pretty much every day can be a beach day so it is just too exhausting to stress about being the right size for a bikini or worse still “beach body ready”. GAH I hate that phrase!!!
I’m also 40 this and have finally, finally, finally embraced my body. It’s wonky, it’s broken in a lot of places, but it’s still going to the beach in swimwear and I’ll work with what I’ve got 🙂
Just found cool swimwear at Torrid in the clearance rack, and a swim top at H&M
Wear what you like!
I had an appendectomy right before I turned 40, and decided it was time to leave the tyranny of trying to look good in a bikini behind. I was happy in my skirted tankini. It was like a cute little swim dress! Then I went on vacation and saw a bunch of not skinny European women rocking bikinis and thought “Maybe I’ll try one – at home only”. I forgot how comfortable they are! Less fabric means they dry so much more quickly after a swim so you are not walking around with a clammy skirt stuck to your thighs.
I haven’t worn a bikini since i was 14. I especially love Mindy’s first bikini.
Whatever you feel confident wearing, you should wear. For a great body positive movie, check out Dumplin’ on Netflix if you haven’t already seen it.
The bikinis are flattering. I say wear whatever you want as long as it is flattering to your shape..
Good on her for promoting body positivity. I still get immediately distracted by whatever she did to her lips/face whenever I see her.
I like this message because I was an overweight kid during the “heroin chic” trend of the 90s and I remember being 11 years old in a dressing room breaking down in tears because I hated myself. I remember feeling gross and ugly because all the teen mags that were popular during that time touted flat stomachs and stick figures as the ideal beauty. No shade to anyone who has those features, I’m just saying I grew up in a time where if you didn’t have those features, you were not considered attractive by any means. I love to see anyone who isn’t the stereotypical “conventional” concept of beautiful showing themselves and expressing that it’s OK to not fit into that box. When I was a kid, that really would’ve meant something to me. It does now, too.
On the contrary though, I don’t get the pressure that many seem to feel about having to wear a bikini. I work out hard and am proud of my body and I don’t get the hate on one pieces. It has become almost more controversial to wear a onepiece bathing suit than to wear a tankini or a bikini. I guess I just feel like trends are weird and people should wear whatever they like and/or feel comfortable in.
That was a tough time to be a pre-teen/teen–during the Kate Moss era. I’m not sure if things have really improved all that much in terms of young women feeling pressure to conform to a certain body type, though. Back then, we were all struggling to be rail thin but now that an hourglass figure with ample butt and bosom is the thing, young women are trying to attain a new version of a mostly unattainable body type. It never stops.
One pieces are really making a comeback. We were at the beach this weekend and saw a lot of cute ones.
I swear it’s worse. When we were young, the magazines and TV were definitely promoting the Kate Moss body type, but we weren’t carrying our TV in our pockets, and most of us only knew a couple of girls who fit that body type-most people just looked like people. With social media, YouTube, and cell phones, the message that you HAVE to look a certain way is constantly being delivered and reinforced.
I much prefer one pieces, I find them more comfortable for actual swimming. Also these days I have a small kid and if we are in the pool he is clinging to me and I would honestly be afraid he would somehow yank down the bottom of a two-piece. He has nearly exposed my boobs more than once, even with a fairly modest suit. If I loved wearing two piece suits I would probably try to find one that worked for my concerns but…I have always just preferred one pieces anyway. Every few years I try on a bikini and I’m always like “this is cute but I feel too exposed, where is the one piece?” I feel this way no matter how fat or thin or fit or out of shape I am. I feel pretty good in a one piece though, so….that’s that for me.
I always say, “I’m too old not to wear a bikini!”
If you don’t like how my body looks don’t look at my body.
48 and DGAF.