This post has excerpts from a story I wrote for Clutch Magazine a few years ago called Love Your Stretch Marks. In the story, I talked about how I discovered my stretch marks and then I gave tips to get rid of them. I will not do that today. Instead, I encourage you to embrace your beautiful “natural tattoos.”

This is why I love my stretch marks.

I will never forget the first time I spotted a stretch mark on my body. I was about 13 years old.

My older sister and I were taking a dip in the pool, and she noticed them. “Oh, so you have stretch marks, too,” she said as she pointed to the top of my chest. I asked her what they were and what it meant, and she explained that it was a result of my skin stretching to fit my growing body. She also told me not to stress about it because all of my sisters had them (there are 5 of us), so we could blame genetics.

From that moment forward, I became self-conscious about this apparent “flaw” in my physique. Deep down inside, I wanted these stretch marks gone! I was always a bit more developed than my sister and peers at a young age, so it was something that I was extremely self-conscious about.

I hit puberty at 11; my sisters did at 13. This caused me to think that something was wrong with me. For years, I spent money on topical treatments, tried crazy beauty hacks and natural remedies and while I did see some results, my stretch marks never completely went away and I doubt they ever will, and I’m OK with that. It wasn’t until my freshman year of college that I really began to embrace my body. I had an epiphany where I realized that I either had to love myself completely as-is or be miserable and ashamed of something that I couldn’t control.

My stretch marks show the beauty of my transition into womanhood. They show that my curves are not in vain. (Honey, theyre a gift!) I love my body. I love every bit of hips, boobs and booty that I have–stretch marks and all.

Ciao Bellas,