Last night while scrolling through Facebook, I came upon this picture and was extremely inspired by her story of overcoming body image. Lesley Miller, a 21 year-old Rice University senior, shared her journey of struggling with eating disorders and feeling confident about herself. And because sometimes the Internet can be a magically wonderful place, she’s gotten thousands of comments, not to mention being shared over 40,000 times of women all over the world supporting her and cheering her on for finally wearing a bikini.

It’s heartbreaking to read of Lesley’s body issues that started even when she was a young child. Admitting things like, “When I was eleven the surgeon cut into my stomach, and he told me how happy I would finally be. I was the youngest person to have weight loss surgery.”

Even so, Lesley’s main goal is to be an inspiration and help women saying. She said, “For so long I’ve been ashamed of the way that I look and felt like I needed to hide myself. In the past year I’ve realized…there are so many other people going through the same thing and that is honestly my biggest motivation. I think a lot of people are dealing with their own struggles and we tend to put so much emphasis on appearance or weight or size. I just want everyone to realize that’s not a thing that brings you happiness or fulfillment.”