Michelle Obama, Beyoncé, Alicia Keys: Curvy, Confident and Black [SLIDESHOW]

Curvy black women are more confident about their bodies, despite being generally larger than white women, new research has claimed.

According to a study commissioned by the Washington Post, black women have a deeper appreciation of beauty and are happier about how they look.

Experts revealed that two-thirds of overweight or obese black women said that they had high self-esteem in contrast to just two-fifths of average-sized or thin white women.

The study identified prominent curvy black women such has Michelle Obama and Beyoncé as key in helping to drive self-confidence in curvier women.

It concluded that black women have created their own benchmarks on beauty and follow those standards rather than what is dictated on TV or in magazines.

The survey also discovered that black women tended to place a higher value on being attractive than white women did.

Just 11 percent of white women compared to 28 percent black considered being attractive "very important".

In a world where being slim is represented as the ideal, International Business Times UK has a look at just a few black female celebs that have gone against the grain and embraced their curves.