You might not know the name Rachel Hollis, but by now you’ve probably seen her famous bikini picture on the beach that has gone viral. The photo people can’t stop talking about has been featured on sites such as People.com, E! Online and has been reported on by the likes of The Today Show. Hollis posted on Instagram, proudly showing off her post-baby stretch marks and loving the skin she’s in.

Hollis, a Bakersfield native and former party planner, who now runs The Chic Site, says that many of her posts on Facebook and Instagram have contained the same realness and honesty.

“I try to be really honest about my life and where I am, and what I’m struggling with, because I think that women, too often, are only showing the best side of themselves and when you do that, it sort of alienates you from other women who could be your tribe and your community and kind of lift you up,” said Hollis.

Was this the kind of response she was expecting? Not exactly.

“Everybody asks, ‘oh, were you planning this?’” she says, but her response was simply, “How could I have planned this?”

Hollis added that day on the beach, she really liked her bathing suit and asked her husband to take a few pictures. In the first few, she felt “super awkward,” but found one she liked, which happened to show her smiling and laughing at how ridiculous she felt about it. While she had thought about cropping around the stretch marks, she ultimately decided against it.

“I’d never seen that before, another woman post her stretch-mark photo and thought, ‘well, gosh, I’m sure some of my other mom followers have these, too,” said Hollis.

As soon as she posted the picture, the response was “instantaneous.” There were 100 likes within five minutes, which seemed to be pretty special, and the numbers continued to grow from there.

The picture isn’t to say that she’s gone without her struggles of body image, though. She acknowledged that the past eight years have been a constant process and involved her trying to love and accept her body the way it is.

“As a woman, you know your body is going to change, but you don’t know until you’re actually in that place,” she added.

Posting this photo has stirred a lot of conversation with women all around the world, even as far as the Middle East, which she calls, “amazing, humbling and so inspiring.” There have been many comments on the Facebook page, but the ones she has received in emails have been some of the most heart wrenching stories, from both women and men.

There’s a lot more to the girl behind the picture than many would realize. The former party planner-turned lifestyle blogger is not only an entrepreneur and author, but a wife and a mother. Like many women, she’s able to do it all, thanks to finding a balance. She gets up earlier than everyone else, drinks a lot of caffeine and takes care of herself by exercising. Hollis accepts that every day is going to tilt back and forth in different directions, and that’s okay.

For those of us, who don’t quite have the career or life figured out, her main advice for 20-somethings is to stop obsessing over what life is supposed to be.

“Whatever you’re going to have, whatever life is going to be, wherever you’re going to go career-wise, or in your relationship, whoever you’re going to become, you’re not going to become that person tomorrow, or next week, or even next month,” she said, “You become that person over time.”

The bottom line is, it all takes time.

“There’s only one time in our lives when we get that freedom to experience and grow into who we’re going to be. And there’s nothing wrong with it taking awhile.”

Hollis is proof that being determined and having a vision for your life will pay off later on, but is a reminder that it doesn’t happen overnight.

Visit her website at http://thechicsite.com or follow her on Twitter – @msrachelhollis

Phoito