Nude Yoga Girl inspires women to do yoga naked

A mysterious social media star has inspired women of all shapes and sizes to post photos of themselves doing yoga in the nude as a way to celebrate their bodies.

Nude Yoga Girl, who has not revealed her name online, has accumulated more than 660,000 Instagram followers in two years by posting photos of herself practicing yoga naked.

The 26-year-old model’s pictures, which have found artistic ways around the social media platform’s nudity policy, have now inspired people around the world to follow suit under the hashtag NYGyoga, created by Nude Yoga Girl herself.

Inspiration: The 26-year-old model’s pictures have now prompted people around the world to follow suit under the hashtag NYGyoga. Pictured is an image shared as part of the social media campaign

Message: ‘I wanted to add myself to the beautiful gallery of #NYGyoga because she was part of my inspiration for posting myself practicing yoga the way I prefer it, bare, vulnerable, and strong,’ someone wrote next to their own snap (pictured)

Artistic: Like Nude Yoga Girl, Instagram users who have shared their own nude yoga snaps (one of which is pictured) have found ways to pose to get around the social media platform’s nudity guidelines

Journey: Nude Yoga Girl wanted to inspire other people (one of whom is pictured) to embrace their own bodies by sharing her photos, and she has opened up about her own path to self-acceptance in her captions

During her first month on Instagram, Nude Yoga Girl attracted an impressive 33,000 followers. In addition to her photos, they enjoyed her long captions, in which she opened up about her own difficulties to accept certain aspects of her body, such as her height. 

‘The account is anonymous, but I still want to be close with my followers, and I try to do it with my captions,’ the model, who has revealed English is not her first language, told The Cut during a previous email interview.

Nude Yoga Girl began shooting her photos in a small studio at her home, with the help of her boyfriend.

She has since experimented with various locations and, while her pictures were initially all posted in black and white, she has since started sharing colored snaps as well.

The model has said she only uses Photoshop to remove certain elements that would go against Instagram’s guidelines, such as nipples.

Followers: More than 660,000 people are currently subscribed to Nude Yoga Girl’s account on Instagram. Pictured is one of the photos shared under the #NYGyoga hashtag

Path: Staging and sharing her photos has helped Nude Yoga Girl (pictured) combine her passion for photography with her yoga practice, and it has enabled her to speak out about her own body image journey

Poses: In their photos, people who have taken part in the #NYGyoga campaign can be seen performing their own asanas

Community: An Instagram search for #NYGyoga currently renders 321 pictures posted by people with whom Nude Yoga Girl’s message has resonated (one of whom is pictured), and some shared by the model herself

Staging and sharing her photos has helped her combine her passion for photography with her yoga practice, and it has enabled her to speak out about her own body image journey.

‘My biggest issue in the past was that I saw faults in my body all the time, and that made it impossible for me to love myself fully,’ she told The Cut.

‘The way you look doesn’t matter — anybody can see faults and have that feeling of not liking themselves. With my account I want to inspire people to realize that everybody is very beautiful and capable of [doing] amazing things with their bodies.’

Yoga has helped the model to embrace her own appearance, and she wanted to encourage others to practice so they can experience the same benefits.

Tribute: Nude Yoga Girl posted this collage of four people who have taken part in her campaign, praising them for getting involved and encouraging others to do the same thing

Yoga has helped the model to embrace her own appearance, and she wanted to encourage others to practice so they can experience the same benefits. Pictured is a woman who took part in the campaign

Spreading the word: ‘With my account I want to inspire people to realize that everybody is very beautiful and capable of [doing] amazing things with their bodies,’ Nude Yoga Girl (pictured) said

That is why she created a hashtag specifically so others could share their own nude yoga photos. An Instagram search for #NYGyoga currently renders 321 pictures posted by people with whom Nude Yoga Girl’s message has resonated, and some shared by the model herself.

‘I wanted to add myself to the beautiful gallery of #NYGyoga because she was part of my inspiration for posting myself practicing yoga the way I prefer it, bare, vulnerable, and strong,’ someone wrote next to their own nude yoga snap. ‘Thank you @nude_yogagirl for your light and your warm presence.’ 

‘We shall all be different, love our bodies and be comfortable in our own skin,’ another person wrote before praising the model’s campaign.

‘Hey yogis, @nude_yogagirl is raising awareness through #NYGyoga, inspiring us to love and accept our bodies fully because she believes we are all unique. So, love the skin you are in and come as you are!’