Blogger and AFL WAG Annie Nolan gets honest about her stretch marks

Annie Nolan, blogger and wife of AFL player Liam Picken, has shared the ripple effects her insecurity about her stretch marks once had on her life.
 
On Instagram earlier this week, the 28-year-old shared a black and white portrait of herself, her stretch marks visible on her bared stomach.
 
In her caption, Nolan reflects on a period of her life when her body concerns became so prevalent she “refused intimacy”.

“Friends, I chose WORRYING ABOUT STRETCH MARKS OVER HAVING AN ORGASM,” the mother of three and creator of the Uncanny Annie blog writes. 

“What the heck was I thinking?”

Looking back, Nolan - who wed Western Bulldogs star Picken on New Year’s Eve in 2015 - now wishes she hadn’t let her feelings about her appearance hold back back.

RELATED: Model shouts out to her 'magic' stretch marks in body acceptance message

“I already regret opportunities of happiness that I missed because I was worried about my stretch marks and the ridiculous beauty standards I felt I had to conform to,” she writes.

“I’m POSITIVE that when I’m laying in my death bed, thinking about life, I won’t be going, ‘Oh gosh, I really wish I applied more of that bio oil and got laser for my stretch marks’.” 
 
“Hell no. I’m more likely to think, ‘Gosh, making out was fun’.”

They don’t discriminate, either.

Plenty of women, regardless of their body type - or Instagram following - bear the marks on their stomachs, thighs, breasts, and/or other areas of the body.

Realising this has helped Nolan view her own stretch marks more kindly.

“Your body stretching isn’t just normal, it’s absolutely incredible … It’s your body showing lines of life being lived,” she writes.

“It’s your largest organ doing its thing and accommodating your guts/growing bones/babies/the yummy food inside of you.”

Nolan’s uplifting post has been met with a flood of praise from her 54,000 followers.

“I‘ve learned to embrace my stretch marks too. Too much fun to be had to worry about them!” one says.

"Thank you for normalising something that is in fact normal," another writes.
 
“This is such a wonderful insight into how so many women feel,” another comment reads.

"We are who we are. Our body is ours. No matter what scars, stretch marks or flaws it may have."
 
Nolan isn’t the only high-profile woman who’s been out and proud with her stretch marks on social media.

Model and cookbook author Chrissy Teigen's “stretchies” have made a couple of appearances, and she's made no apologies for their existence.

“I do not post stretchies for the praise. I post it because the wine also I like the pattern and they're so soft,” she once added on Twitter.
 
Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi, model Amber Rose and The Voice judge Kelly Rowland have also posted their stretch marks on Instagram.
 
More of this, we say.