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Selena Gomez: Body Shaming on Social Media ‘Really Messed Me Up’


Selena Gomez has been in a very sharing place lately. First, she released back-to-back singles—“Love You to Lose Me” and “Look at Her Now”—that many fans interpreted as a commentary on her past relationship with Justin Bieber.

Now, she’s opening up about how comments about her weight on social media really made her feel. During an interview on the Giving Back Generation podcast, Gomez said (per Entertainment Tonight), “I experienced [body-shaming] with my weight fluctuation for the first time. I have lupus and deal with kidney issues and high blood pressure, so I deal with a lot of health issues, and for me that’s when I really started noticing more of the body image stuff.”

Gomez went on to explain how a combination of her health issues causes her weight to go up and down. “It’s the medication I have to take for the rest of my life—it depends on even the month, to be honest. So for me, I really noticed when people started attacking me for that,” she said. “In reality, that’s just my truth. I fluctuate. It depends what’s happening in my life.” And she added, those harsh words on social media during that time “got to me big time” and “really messed me up for a bit.”

Famous or not, nobody should have to hear strangers (or friends, for that matter) critiquing their body. Ever. But not to fear, Selena Gomez said she is “very happy with living my life” and she’s trying not to hold ill will against her critics. The singer said the “biggest lesson” she had to learn is that “[when it comes to] the people that have hurt me the most, to forgive them. And to continue to understand and have compassion for people.”

But she’s still not going to let her over 160 million followers on Instagram in on every part of her life.

“I don’t care to expose myself to everyone and hear what they have to say about it.” That seems like a healthy and sound strategy to us.



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Demi Lovato Opens Up About New Music and Body Image in Her First Interview in a Year


Since a reported overdose in 2018, Demi Lovato has been taking lots of time to focus on her health and her career. This weekend, she spoke at the Teen Vogue’s 2019 Summit in Los Angeles—her first interview in about a year—revealing that she’s slowly working on new music and hopes fans remember her for her music instead of for the difficult moments she’s faced recently.

During the interview, Lovato explained that the work she has been doing on her mental health has made her feel better and more connected with herself. “I think it’s been a very introspective year for me. I’ve learned a lot, been through a lot,” Demi said, per Teen Vogue.

She also got candid about her body image and how she’s working to recalibrate how she approaches body image.

“We hear the term body positivity all the time,” Lovato said. “To be honest, I don’t always feel positive about my body. Sometimes I do not like what I see. I don’t sit there and dwell on it. I also don’t lie to myself,” she said. “I used to look in the mirror if I was having a bad body image day and say ‘I love my body, you’re beautifully and wonderfully made.’ But I didn’t believe it. I don’t have to lie to myself and tell myself I have an amazing body. All I have to say is ‘I’m healthy.’ In that statement, I express gratitude. I am grateful for my strength and things I can do with my body. I am saying I’m healthy and I accept the way my body is today without changing anything.”

This isn’t the first time Lovato has gotten real about body image. In September, she shared an unedited bikini photo to Instagram saying she was “tired of being ashamed” about her cellulite. “I want this new chapter in my life to be about being authentic to who I am rather than trying to meet someone else’s standards,” she penned in the caption, continuing, “So here’s me, unashamed, unafraid and proud to own a body that has fought through so much and will continue to amaze me when I hopefully give birth one day.”

During the summit, the singer revealed that she’s also easing her way back into the career. “Genuinely I just want people to remember that I’m a singer. A lot of the things that have been through have [outshone] my success in the music industry. I just want people to remember that that’s what I want to give to the world, so please focus on that and not the other things,” she said, adding, “It’s important to remember that I am so cautious this time around of jumping back into things. I’ve really decided to take my time with things. When the time is right to release new music I will, and nobody is more anxious than me. “



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Jillian Bell: I’ve Had a Lot of Different Body Sizes, and They’re All Important


Q&A interviews are an interesting part of my job. I do a project. I promote it. I attend screenings and after there’s usually a question-and-answer portion. There are a few questions I’ve gotten used to answering. “What was it like working with the cast?” “Were there any on-set pranks?” Stuff of that nature. But every once in a while, someone will approach me after to ask something they didn’t want to say into a mic in front of a large crowd.

That happened recently, at the Provincetown Film Festival. I was there to promote my movie Brittany Runs a Marathon, which tells the story of a woman who feels stuck in her life and decides to set an epic goal: to run the NYC marathon. It’s based on a real woman—the amazing and inspiring Brittany O’Neill—and is the first script I’ve read that really showcased the highs and the lows of a transformation tale. I was inspired to go through the same physical journey the character takes on in order to prepare for the role, so I started running. And I lost 40 pounds, like Brittany did. It was hard and emotional, but it connected me to the character in a way I hold very dear.

But back to that Q&A in Provincetown: After, a woman approached me and asked if I found myself feeling more confident in my own skin after I lost the weight. I told her the truth: No.

For me, I was less in my head when I had a little more body to my body. When I lost weight, however, I was constantly comparing myself to other women. “Am I bigger than her?” I found myself thinking. “Smaller?” At times, I was frustrated when people didn’t comment on my weight loss. But if someone commented in a way that felt hurtful to my old body, I was upset too.

Courtesy of Jillian Bell

The woman’s question had me thinking about all of this. So when I came back to Los Angeles, I continued the conversation with my good friend and fellow actor Vanessa Ray. Vanessa and I often sound like mad scientists—like we’re one step away from figuring out the cure to the dreaded “I hate my body” disease. On this particular night, we got into a discussion about all the different bodies we’ve had throughout our lives. I was skimming through pictures of me at my skinniest and at my heaviest and telling her that in both of the pictures I had times of confidence and also times of insecurity.

Two sidebyside photos of Jillian Bell
Courtesy of Jillian Bell

I realized in both of these bodies I had experienced love and loss, laughter and tears, first kisses and kidney stones. (Kidney stones SUCK, by the way.) Both bodies had experienced panic attacks and movie premieres and way too many nights in watching The Office. We thought, “What would happen if we tried to celebrate all stages?” What if everyone saw old pictures of themselves and stopped judging those women? What if we focused on the experience we were having at the moment, rather than whether or not our pants look too tight?



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Hemiplegic Migraines: It Took a 400-Mile Trek for Me to Finally Stop Resenting My Body


Black blobs and bright squiggles bounce into view, blurring the tree-lined trail in front of me. This isn’t the ethereal sight of early morning light filtering through the forest that inspires photographers, poets, and painters. This is the stuff of my nightmares. The orbs are visual auras (not to be confused with the spiritual term of the same spelling)—the kind that typically precede a migraine or seizure. They’re the Oh Sh*t Alarm System that tells me I’ve got minutes or maybe seconds to prepare for an impending neurological storm.

I have a rare condition called hemiplegic migraine. The unpredictable and debilitating symptoms mimic a stroke and can include these visual auras as well as sensory auras (numbness and tingling), motor auras (partial temporary paralysis), and aphasia (the inability to comprehend or speak). That’s in addition to the actual migraine pain, piercing electrical pulses through the brain, hypersensitivity to light and sound, and subsequent “migraine hangover.”

If I were at home and the unwelcome orbs appeared, I’d follow my personal migraine protocol: drink water and some kind of caffeine with sugar (coffee, tea, and/or dark chocolate), pop a prescribed amount of Aleve, consume some quick calories, lay down in the dark, and hopefully ride it out.

That’s the best case scenario. Other times, I lose the ability to comprehend and speak. The first time this happened about 10 years ago, I remember looking down at a magazine on the floor of my friend’s car, trying to read the words on the cover—a quick and silent self-administered test to reassure myself I was ok. I could see the words on the page but I couldn’t comprehend them. They may as well have been hieroglyphics or an abstract painting, totally illegible to me in that moment. I looked over to my friend in the driver’s seat, panicked and wanting to scream for help. But I could barely see him through the visual auras. I couldn’t put together even a simple sentence in my mind, let alone command my mouth to move. I was trapped inside my own mind.

When the symptoms of a hemiplegic migraine attack reach this level, they’re similar to a stroke. In fact, when they get this bad, I need to get to a hospital just to rule out that I’m not having a stroke. On the outside, I look confused and unresponsive. On the inside, it feels like my body and brain have been hijacked—my eyes are open but I can’t form complete thoughts, can’t verbalize what is happening, and can’t ask for help. I’m completely powerless.

The Anatomy of an Attack

Here on the tree-lined trail in the Zubia Forest of northern Jordan, I’m not sure how far away the nearest hospital is—I’m with a handful of hikers I hardly know, five days into a 44-day hike across the country—and I’m desperately hoping I don’t have to find out.

On the Jordan Trail.Courtesy of Sunny Fitzgerald



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Jameela Jamil Candidly Spoke Out About Struggling With Body Dysmorphia and Disordered Eating


Jameela Jamil of The Good Place frequently uses her platform to speak out about important issues like abortion and body image, and in a candid interview with People on Thursday (August 1), she opened up about continuing to struggle with body dysmorphia, the strategies she’s developed to deal with it, and how being lonely as a teen contributed to disordered eating .

According to People, Jamil developed anorexia and body dysmorphia after having to step on a scale in front of her class at 14. “I was really unhappy and I think it contributed to my ability to have an eating disorder for so long, because there was no one kind of monitoring me and I had no one to turn to with my sadness and bad feelings, so I just had a really rough time as a teenager,” she told the magazine.

Jamil also spoke about how she deals with ongoing body dysmorphia, including by making I Weigh pages where she lists all the positive things about her life and herself that have nothing to do with how she looks or how much she weighs. She also has learned to avoid looking in the mirror, she said.

“The only time I look in the mirror is when I put on my eyeliner in the morning and when I take it off at night,” she told People. “I’m not interested in my appearance. I still suffer from body dysmorphia so it can be very distracting for me. Doing that has helped me concentrate on progressing and doing things that enrich my life, like watching my career grow and my relationships grow. That’s what gives me a wonderful sense of self.”

She’s also been investing in developing strong friendships—something that can be tricky not just as a teen, but as an adult.

“I’ve learned how to suck it up and make an effort and put myself on the line and ask people out for coffee,” she told People. “I’ve even officially asked people to be friends, just to make sure that everyone’s in agreement that there’s some sort of friendship forming. I started doing more things that I love and meeting more people via that, and I’ve found more people who had the same interests.”

“A friend is a witness to your life, which I think is something really beautiful and amazing and really shapes your bond with someone,” she continued. “We go through a lot as a woman or just generally as a human and having someone to share that with and having someone in your corner and tells you that you’re wrong when you doubt yourself is so unbelievable. I don’t think I would be the person that I am without my adult friendships and their love and support.”



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We Tested the KKW Beauty Body Foundation—Here's Our Honest Review


After endless teasing on Instagram, last week Kim Kardashian dropped new KKW Beauty body foundation, shimmers, and shimmer powders. Since Rihanna brought body shimmer back from the grave last year, it’s been having somewhat of a renaissance, along with body makeup.

Kim’s never one to sit out on a trend (or money-making opportunity), but this launch also had a strong personal motivation behind it. Kardashian has long been open about her struggles with psoriasis, and that’s in part why she wanted to create her own version of body foundation.

In an Instagram post announcing the launch, she discussed how she’s relied on body makeup for years, but has never been able to find the perfect formula. “I use this when I want to enhance my skin tone or cover my psoriasis,” she said. “I bruise easily and have veins and this has been my secret for over a decade. I’ve learned to live with and not be insecure of my psoriasis, but for days when I want to just cover it up I use this Body Makeup.” In another post, she showcased the makeup by covering her grandmother MJ’s veins.

But this is a Kardashian we’re talking about, and as swiftly as the intrigue came for her new products, so too did controversy. There’s been backlash on social media from both fans and other celebrities (most notably Jameela Jamil), who have accused Kim of promoting unrealistic beauty standards by promoting a product that covers “imperfections.” As Jamil wrote on Twitter (and has since issued an apology about): “Hard pass. God damn the work to take it all off before bed so it doesn’t destroy your sheets… I’d rather just make peace with my million stretch marks and eczema. Taking off my mascara is enough of a pain in the arse. Save money and time and give yourself a damn break.”

Others, however, pointed out that body foundation is nothing new. It’s long been a red carpet and on-camera staple. Even for so-called “everyday people,” there’s clearly a demand for it. (For example, Sally Hansen sells a million cans of its Airbrush Legs a year—the stuff is crazy popular.) Yes, legs are perfectly fine with bumps, bruises, veins, and discoloration, but if you want to cover it up, that’s 100 percent your choice.

Jamil also had a point though. No one wants to take an extra 10 minutes to slather on body makeup, only to have it drip off your legs in the sun or destroy a brand-new skirt. So we tasked three Glamour staffers to put it to the test during a hellishly muggy week in New York City. Read on to see how it held up—and if it’s really worth the $45.

Bella Cacciatore, beauty associate

Left leg bare, KKW Body Foundation in Light on the right.

Bella Cacciatore



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