Stretch marks are caused by literally what their name means: stretching of the skin. Although most people will have experienced at least one stretch mark in their lifetime, the skin tears are most commonly associated with the huge physical changes a woman undergoes during pregnancy. These marks are not only extremely common but also completely natural, yet they are still a source of embarrassment for many women. The Love Your Lines Instagram page hopes to banish this unnecessary shame, one lovely tiger stripe at a time.

Today we live in a world where celebrities are not only photoshopped on magazine covers but also in their own personal photos. We are constantly bombarded with images of perfect women and, according to Love Your Lines co-founder Alex Elle, real women are anything but flawless. “We’re looked at as sex symbols and we’re looked at like we have to be perfect and we’re not. We are flawed individuals and a lot of us have stretch marks,” Elle told HLN TV.

Love Your Lines is where women can come together and share each photo and stories of their stretch marks. It is hoped that by doing so the women can teach one another to not only learn to live happily in their skin, but also learn to love it. “I think what perpetuates it is women telling their own stories. Seeing yourself in these stories and in these women,” added co-founder Erica Layne.

In less than a month Love Your Lines gained more than 75,000 followers, and women throughout the world are sharing their personal stretch mark stories. Although there are many treatments to help fade the appearance of stretch marks, none are able to make the light lines completely disappear, and since they are frequently a sign of motherhood, why would you want them to fade completely anyway?