Lilly is a beautiful actress (most famous for her role on Lost) and yes, much of her fame is based on her looks. But she is also a mother. She has a 4-year-old son, Kahekili, with her partner Norman Kali. And now she has the second baby, too. She has been notoriously publicity shy about her kids and now, it is easy to see why.
Because it would be really great if we could get past the notion that any woman who dares to wear a bathing suit post baby (or ever, really) is "flaunting" her body. Sometimes they are just wearing a bathing suit. Sometimes (gasp!) they might just want to swim.
The truth is, this happens to every woman and every actress all the time. And it's high time it stopped. As women, we already feel scrutinized and analyzed when we are in our bathing suits. Believe me, I know every flaw. I know the places I could use some "work" and I know I don't feel comfortable in a bathing suit at my community pool because it always feels like a balancing act between looking too weirdly conservative and prudish or, alternatively, being accused of "flaunting" something. All we really want to do is go to the pool, for goodness sake.
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Luckily, I am not a celebrity. So I can only imagine how Lilly and all other women feel. The post-baby body is strange and confusing. Nothing is where it was before and every woman feels a little self-conscious whether she is famous or not. For an actress, it is that much worse. Yes, Lilly looks amazing, but that is really beside the point. The point is she just pushed a baby out. Her body just did an amazing thing and is now recovering. It is normal to not have super-tight abs and be soft in places that were not before. It is fine.
Even so, we feel self-conscious about it. Every woman does. It takes enormous courage to put on that bathing suit again. No one is "flaunting" anything. Most of the time, we are just trying to enjoy our time with our family and get used to the bodies that have been altered so drastically.
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Magazines need to get past this stuff. Congratulations to Lilly on the birth of her child. She is a strong woman who has so much to look forward to with her family. Seeing her happy on the beach is empowering and great. How she looks is completely secondary. The only thing she is flaunting is her radiant happiness.