TiKa Simone, a singer based in Toronto, loves her body, and she wants the world to hear her when she says that. TiKa and four other black women took part in a photo shoot in Toronto's Edwards Gardens, all of them wearing white and refusing to hide their bodies—society's absurdly narrow definition of beauty be damned.

“We are everything the world hates," reads the caption of a photo TiKa posted on Instagram. "Fat. Black. Woman. And yet, we exist. Unapologetically and without shame. F*** you. We love on ourselves.”

Much of the plus-size body-love movement is spearheaded by white women like Iskra Lawrence, Ashley Graham, and Tess Holliday. While their voices and actions are important, it's also crucial that women of color and other marginalized groups can embrace body love for themselves, too.

TiKa, who hails from Toronto, came up with the idea for the shoot, which was photographed by Anthony Gebrehiwot. She explained to Yahoo Lifestyle that the images actually tie into an idea for her next music video. “I had a vision of black women around me singing alongside me, but I wanted them to look like me as I’ve never seen fat black bodies together dressed in all white," she said. "It’s so angelic and beautiful and soft. So I asked my beautiful fat femme sisters to join me.”

She continued, “This photo shoot was a major ‘f*** you’ to anyone and everyone who has ever tried to invalidate me. I’m a human being, and I matter just like everyone else. I was grateful to have friends who were brave enough to stand with me.”

One of the participants in the photo shoot, Sashagai Ruddock, told Yahoo Lifestyle that she chose to join the shoot in order to further the body-love movement for women of color. “Representation still lacks in the media for fat black women," she said.

This isn't the first time TiKa has publicly, rightfully, refused to apologize for her body and emphasized the importance of representation. “I feel it's important, as a staple of the Toronto music scene, to allow people to understand that I'm very much in love with my body,” she told NOW Toronto in 2015. “It's taken me a long time to get to this place, but I think it's really important—especially for children and youth—to see different body types.”

Related:

You may also like: This Body-Positivity Clothing Line Will Change How You Think About Wedding Dresses