A model has spoken out about the abusive messages she received after posing for an adverting campaign with hairy legs.

Arvida Byström, 26, is an artist, photographer and model from Sweden. She stars in an Adidas advert promoting the brand's new Superstar trainers, but has faced a backlash since the campaign video was released on Youtube, with many commenters describing her body hair as 'disgusting'.

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Arvida has since shared an image from the advert with her 197,000 Instagram followers, explaining that she has received rape threats: 'My photo from the @adidasoriginals superstar campaign got a lot of nasty comments last week.

'Me being such an abled, white, cis body with its only nonconforming feature being a lil leg hair. Literally I've been getting rape threats in my DM inbox. I can't even begin to imagine what it's like to not posses all these privileges and try to exist in the world.'

Arvida, who often shares photos of her body hair on Instagram, has been praised by many women for her refusal to comply with stereotypes.

One commenter wrote: 'Hairy legs are natural. Arvida you are beautiful. To all of the superficial morons that don't like hairy legs. Don't look! All of the insane stuff going on in this world and people are fixated on hairy legs. Seriously!'

Another said: 'What business of anyone's is it what you choose to do with your body hair?'

Describing their campaign star, Adidas wrote below the Youtube video: 'Arvida Byström is an artist, photographer, model and cyber sensation.

'Known for her photography, which questions femininity and gender standards using so-called "girly" aesthetics.'

The Adidas campaign comes after Paris Jackson recently responded to body hair haters. She shared a picture on Instagram of herself with unshaven legs and captioned the image with: 'If you're not competing with your brother over who can grow longer leg hair wyed'(wyed in this context meaning What are You Even Doing).

From: Cosmopolitan UK