Anne Hathaway posted a rare revealing photo because she wanted to teach paparazzi a lesson

Anne Hathaway wants to show her body on her own terms.

The Oscar-winning actress posted a photo of herself pregnant in a bikini on Instagram after spotting paparazzi taking photos of her while on vacation. Hathaway and her husband, Adam Shulman, are expecting a child this year. Her pregnancy was revealed last November.

Happy 2016 to my beautiful Instafriends! So, posting a bikini pic is a little out of character for me, but just now while I was at the beach I noticed I was being photographed. I figure if this kind of photo is going to be out in the world it should at least be an image that makes me happy (and be one that was taken with my consent. And with a filter :) Wishing you love, light and blessings for the year ahead! ????Annie????

A photo posted by Anne Hathaway (@annehathaway) on Jan 3, 2016 at 9:31pm PST

In her caption, she explains that posting the photo was "a little out of character" for her, but given the presence of photographers, she wanted to post her own photo that makes her "happy."

Last year, Taylor Swift responded to paparazzi in a very similar way while on vacation in Hawaii with the band Haim.

Greetings from Maui! @haimtheband

A photo posted by Taylor Swift (@taylorswift) on Jan 23, 2015 at 5:20pm PST

After posting the photo, Swift told Nick Grimshaw during his show on BBC Radio 1 that she had not planned to take it, but she didn't want paparazzi to make a lot of money off of their own pictures, especially with Swift showing off her rarely seen belly button (which has become a meme).

So Swift decided to preempt the photographers at their own game using her massively popular Instagram:

"Basically, on the last day [of vacation] we see a fishing boat a half a mile away. We were like, 'That's a little weird. We're in the middle of the ocean scuba diving.' My security gets out binoculars and sees that they have a huge long-lens camera. At which point, we go back to the beach and we realize, 'Okay, so they got pictures of us in our bikinis, like, I don't want them to make like $100,000 for stalking us.' So we're like, 'Get up on the bow of the boat. We're taking better bikini shots, so they don't make as much money on theirs.'"

It looks like Swift's smart move may have inspired Hathaway's pregnant photo. After all, celebrities wield a lot more power over their image on Instagram. Now they're really showing it.