Mom's bikini photo showing stretch marks is Internet hit

Author Rachel Hollis originally shared vacation pic on Facebook

LOS ANGELES – A mom and author is making headlines not for her writing, but for her vacation photos.

Well, one in particular.

On March 21, Rachel Hollis posted to Facebook a picture of her in a bikini, and commenting, "I have stretch marks and I wear a bikini."

Hollis, 32, went on to say, "I have a belly that's permanently flabby from carrying three giant babies and I wear a bikini. My belly button is saggy... (which is something I didn't even know was possible before!!) and I wear a bikini. I wear a bikini because I'm proud of this body and every mark on it."

An accomplished author and host of The Chic Site, Hollis was in Cancun with her three kids, ages 8, 6, and 2 and wanted to show that she takes pride in her body and women should never be ashamed of their appearance.

In the post, Hollis said of her stretch marks, "(They) prove that I was blessed enough to carry my babies and that flabby tummy means I worked hard to lose what weight I could. I wear a bikini because the only man who's opinion matters knows what I went through to look this way."

Hollis told the Today show that she considered cropping out her stomach, but decided against it.

As of Thursday morning, the picture had been "liked" over 383,000 times on Facebook and shared more than 47,000 times.