Celebrate yourself with these body-positive movies

It's hard to relate to characters when the women onscreen don't look like you, or anyone you know. Here are a few movies that’ll make you want to love yourself even more.

Disfigured

Disfigured is a movie about how women on two dramatically opposite ends of the spectrum struggle with the exact same things — deep body dissatisfaction that’s a constant struggle for women. Lydia and Darcy — who both struggle with eating disorders — one is extremely overweight, the other extremely underweight. They form an unlikely friendship after Darcy, a recovering anorexic, joins Lydia’s Fat Acceptance Group.

The Full Monty

You don’t really see a lot of movies about men struggling with their body image. After the men in a Northern England mining town lose their jobs, they’re trapped in a cycle of unemployment and dependence to the state. In a last-ditch effort to meet his child support payments, Gaz enlists his similarly weary friends to start a dance act based on Chippendales’ performances. The men all come to rehearsal with their own body hang-ups, and are completely terrified to perform in front of their wives and girlfriends. But by the end of the movie, their newfound self-acceptance is palpable and infectious.

Kung Fu Panda

Kung fu is not just for the super skinny and physically fit. The western world has taken the meaning of kung fu and applied it almost exclusively to martial arts, when in truth it has a much broader definition. This art is the practice of strengthening the mind as well as the body, and is used to instill discipline as well as physical conditioning. Despite being an out of shape, flabby panda, Po shows that through a reconditioning of mind, spirit, and body, that anyone can do anything they set their mind to.

 Shallow Hal

Shallow Hal has spent a lifetime chasing after and dating girls for their looks. But when a motivational speaker puts a curse on him to only see women for their inner beauty, he finds himself falling in love with a 300-pound girl who he sees for what she has on the inside. Losing weight and getting healthy is extremely important, but contrary to what much of the world tells us, it shouldn’t only be about looking good. The more important thing to strive for is the benefits it has for our health. 

Moana

After growing up with dainty Disney princesses, Moana — and her strong build — will come as a cool Polynesian breeze of fresh air. The daughter of a chieftain, Moana knows it's her destiny to stay on the island and govern. But her dream is to explore the open sea, something her people haven't done in generations.

Patti Cakes

Patricia Dombrowski is stuck in a rundown town in New Jersey, and spends her days taking care of an ailing grandmother and an alcoholic mother who sings karaoke in a bar and mourns her failed singing career. Her only emotional outlet comes through rapping. Patti Cakes is a refreshing depiction of a plus-size woman being in a relationship and chasing after her dreams in a society where it’s almost unacceptable to be plus sized and happy with yourself.

I Feel Pretty

Renee, a funny and capable but insecure young woman bonks her head in a ghastly accident at a packed Manhattan spin class. When she regains consciousness, she believes she’s been magically transformed into the gorgeous bombshell she’s always dreamed of becoming. A steady diet of YouTube hair and makeup tutorials and Cosmopolitan magazine articles—not to mention that she works for a cosmetics company, so she’s a cog in the image machinery herself—has warped her notions of what constitutes true beauty. But it’s only after hitting her head again that Renee realizes she was the same woman all this time.