In a new series of photos, the Danish photographer Marie Hald portrays young Scandinavian women who insist on being themselves.

Fat. Some of them are Instagram activists and have chosen to stop only posting selfies of their faces, but to show their bodies. Including on the beach. And in bikinis. Some of them are activists in their daily lives by – as they say – “Simply by taking up space the way they do” and once in a while by forcing themselves to do something provocative like eating an ice cream in public.

Marie Hald’s portraits of them are beautiful. Because that is how she sees them. As beautiful. ”This is not about promoting fatness. And this goes for me as well as for the women whose portraits I have taken. It’s about the permission to exist. Without being shamed.”