A spray of sunny, multicolored post-it-notes adorn the body-shaped mural, surrounded by doodles of planets, flowers, food, cute animals, and other random, animated drawings. In commemoration of National “Love Your Body” Day on Oct. 14, HerSpace, a student group focused on issues relating to women, decided to hang up a poster with an outline of a body across from the Dean’s office and provide students with post-it-notes so they could write what they loved most about their bodies and stick it on to encourage body positivity.

“Body positivity is a big part of being comfortable as women. It affects all genders but it’s a big issue with women, with the way women are depicted in the media and how women are sexualized and expected to be a certain way,” co-president Maggie Vlietstra said.

Although becoming comfortable with one’s body and learning to accept it, flaws and all, is very difficult for most people, Vlietstra hopes thinks that the mural is “something we can do to reverse the flow of negative body things people hear all the time from media, and even from the people around them. [The mural is] a simple way for us to combat it,” she said.

Junior Muneil Rizvi also stuck a post-it-note on HerSpace’s mural, which he believes gives people “an opportunity [to appreciate their bodies]. You should be comfortable saying whatever you want about your body whenever you want…people should be able to be comfortable with their bodies.”

HerSpace’s goal for this project was to provide the community with a visual representation of body positivity, so students wouldn’t forget about the issue as fast.

“I see all these things on this body and it will be pretty powerful,” Vlietstra said “there’s something about writing [what you love about your body] down, and actually committing it to paper that makes it seem a little more real…it’s not a requirement that you must love your body, but it’s really nice if you can.”