The gorgeous images that will help you see your stretch marks for what they really are.

In a celebration of something we too-rarely celebrate, artists on Instagram are turning stretch marks into glitter stripes and the results are as beautiful as they are powerful.

Digital artist Sara Shakeel turned to art when she failed her final year of dental school, according to an interview in Cosmopolitan.

What started as a release for her “sadness and depression” quickly turned into something gorgeous.

Now, she’s using her creative skills to open a conversation about women’s bodies. A conversation many of us shy away from having.

RAW -???? #glitterstretchmarks . . CollageArt.SaraShakeel . . A beautiful follower wanted me to make an artwork out of her! Let her know she looks amazing! Glitter no glitter! . . #art #loveyourselfnow #now #love #patience #patientlywaiting #lines #tigerstripes #womenofcolor #color #brown #shine #behappy #bfhealth #

A post shared by Sara Shakeel (@sarashakeel) on Nov 1, 2017 at 3:46pm PDT

“I still remember that feeling of making those glitter stretch marks, and I was quite scared of uploading it,” Shakeel told Cosmopolitan.

“I am a Pakistani-based artist and talking about stretch marks or even making art out of it is not something you talk about on a regular basis.”

A post shared by Sara Shakeel (@sarashakeel) on Oct 28, 2017 at 9:58am PDT

Shakeel is not the only one using art to help redefine the way women look at their bodies.

Fellow Instagram artist Cinta Tort Cartró, who goes by the Instgram handle Zinteta, takes a similar approach. She uses glitter and body paint to turn stretch marks and scars and even period blood into something beautiful.

The results are breathtaking.

A post shared by ¿ Cinta Tort Cartró ???? (@zinteta) on Sep 9, 2017 at 1:30am PDT

A post shared by ¿ Cinta Tort Cartró ???? (@zinteta) on Oct 3, 2017 at 11:48pm PDT

#manchoynomedoyasco

A post shared by ¿ Cinta Tort Cartró ???? (@zinteta) on Sep 27, 2017 at 7:45am PDT

Both artists have an impressive fanbase and the response from followers to these images is overwhelmingly positive.

“I love this,” many women commented. “Thank you for doing this,” others add.

Even better? It works.

Spend 20 minutes scrolling through these feeds looking at women’s bodies of different shapes and sizes and colours and backgrounds, covered in glitter and paint and turned into art, and you will start wondering at the beauty that’s in the power of the female body – as opposed to focusing solely on the way it looks.

A little bit of glitter is helping us all see stretch marks for what they really are – a marker of the way our bodies grow, evolve, carry us and keep us safe.