Denise Jolly is an artist and an activist. She's also a woman who wants to empower others to embrace themselves and their own beauty at any size. And to further her message, she stepped out onto the streets of Brooklyn and recreated Madonna's iconic hitchhiking photo, the one from the singer's 1992 Sex book to show that you can be beautiful and proud no matter who you are or what you look like. You go, Denise Jolly. You go on with your bad self.


The photo was taken by the creative team at Shameless Photography and it's a gorgeous image that took a lot of bravery to execute. You can see the censored image below and click through to The Huffington Post for the uncensored version, which comes with Jolly's own words about the project:

it took 33 years for me to see women my size living proudly and unapologetically in their naked bodies. This is unacceptable. There are women, people, bodies all over the world raised to believe they are unwanted and invisible. We are not built to be invisible; we are built to be the cast and anchor of desire, no matter our size or makeup.


Image via Twitter