'Bachelor' Alum Bekah Martinez Reveals Inspiring Reason for Not Shaving Legs in Red Carpet Photos

Bachelor alum Bekah Martinez let her leg hairs show with pride on the red carpet, but not by accident, it was an intentional move and an act of "self-love."

"I went to a red carpet event without shaving my legs!" she shared in a photo of herself alongside fellow Bachelor stars Kendall Long and Corinne Olympios.

"This may sound really dumb, it was a big deal for me. I've finally gotten to the point where I feel (almost) totally comfortable like this," she added.

She continued to share that she stopped shaving her legs and armpits "about a year ago as a practice of self-love," saying, "I grew up HATING the hair on my body. I was teased for it, snuck my mom's razor at age 9, would pray that god would remove the hair from the neck down."

While this time around it was an act of "self-love," it wasn't always like that. The anxiety surrounding the amount of hair she grew would send the 24-year-old into a downward spiral. It got so bad at one point in time that Martinez would "panic every time I got invited to go swimming and hadn't shaved."

What changed the game for the young reality star was her daughter Ruthie Ray, 6 months.

"When I got pregnant, I decided to work to overcome this insecurity. It's not about 'not believing in shaving,' it's about believing I AM BEAUTIFUL, ATTRACTIVE AND 'FEMININE' NO MATTER WHERE I HAVE HAIR ON MY BODY," she said. "It's about showing girls you don't have to listen when society tells you your natural features are ugly or gross."

"It has taken months to get use to it," she added. "The horrible online comments don't help. But I'm getting there."

She wrapped up her thoughts on a positive note, saying, "Remember, if someone has a problem with the way you look, that's an issue with THEIR mentality, not YOUR body."

Something else she's a firm believer in is background checks on gun sales. She took to Instagram to air her thoughts and while there were many mixed opinions, she received a lot of support.

View this post on Instagram

READ THE POST BEFORE COMMENTING. Preventing mass shootings shouldn’t be an issue of political party. This isn’t “liberal propaganda” or repealing the second amendment (side note on that— the founding fathers were writing about 18th century muskets, not AK-47 style assault rifles). It’s about SAVING LIVES. Would you change your mind if your child was killed with an assault-style weapon in their kindergarten class? Would you change your mind if your best friend was one of the dozens murdered at a random concert? I have hispanic family in El Paso that could have been among the victims of this latest racist shooting. Think stricter gun laws won’t stop “the bad guys”? Think again. More than 75% of weapons used in mass shootings have been purchased legally. Let’s take a note from similar countries who have taken action to keep their citizens safe. Australia enacted sweeping measures and a gun buyback program in 1996. Since then there hasn’t been a single mass shooting (defined as 5 or more people killed). Canada, also with stricter gun laws than the US, has seen only 5 mass shootings in the past 25 years. Compare that with the US— there have already been 32 mass killings in 2019 alone. More than a dozen states allow for concealed carry WITHOUT A LICENSE OR PERMIT. The Federal Assault Weapons Ban expired in 2004. Attempts to renew the ban or enact a new one have repeatedly failed. 43 states have no assault weapons ban at all. . I could go on but I’ll leave it at this: WE CAN SEND “THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS” OR WE CAN TAKE ACTION: The House of Representatives passed a bill to require background checks on all gun sales. Text CHECKS to 644-33 to be connected with your Senators and tell them we want background checks and a federal ban on assault weapons. Please share this message.

A post shared by bekah (@bekah) on Aug 4, 2019 at 9:23am PDT