We love a celebrity baby announcement here at Glamour.com—especially seeing and reading about how excited the parents-to-be are to meet their child. But let’s be real: pregnancy isn’t all ice cream and gorgeous glow, nor is childbirth the glossed-over, relatively sterile before-and-after we so often see onscreen. After all, you’re growing an entire human inside you for nine-ish months—it’s not going to be sunshine and roses around the clock.
We tend not to see this other side from celebrities: After all, a glam squad and years of professional training means they always look like they’re feeling at the top of their game, with not a hair out of place. But over the years, women in the spotlight have started to use their platform to talk about the not-so-pleasant sides of pregnancy and childbirth as a way to raise awareness of common experiences and issues women might not otherwise hear about (so many aspects women’s health today still aren’t discussed openly). And honestly—if this doesn’t prove that pregnancy and childbirth are beyond different for each woman, we don’t know what does.
Read on for a few celebrities who have told it like it is, from Chrissy Teigen being her usual candid, hilarious self to Serena Williams recounting a life-threatening birth experience.
If you’ve ever daydreamed about meeting a celebrity—say, Taylor Swift or Lady Gaga—you’ve likely imagined the best-case scenario. You and the superstar instantly hit it off; you take a cute picture; and maybe they even remember you the next time you bump into each other in the meet-and-greet line or at Whole Foods. But as one Twitter account pointed out this week, that’s truly the best-case situation—and sometimes, the interactions go awry thanks to a little case of being starstruck.
On November 6, Twitter user @rachymarshall asked her followers to straight-up share the not-so-smooth things they’ve ever said to a celebrity. Hundreds of people have responded since then—and their self-submitted stories of awkward comments and personal questions are hilarious.
PHOTO: Alexander Tamargo/TAS18/Getty Images for TAS
“When I met Taylor Swift she complimented me on my necklace and I bragged to her about how I got it on sale for 2 for 20 the day before and she told me she would check that out while she was wearing a $2k jacket,” wrote one fan.
One Twitter user wrote that during her run-in, she told the pop icon, “‘I will shoot myself if I don’t tell you this’ to Taylor Swift which is a little more aggressive than what I meant, which was ‘I’ll never forgive myself if I don’t tell you this’ and then continued to blubber and cry.”
“When i met camila and lili from riverdale instead of asking for s group hug i said “Could you sandwich me” and everyday i regret that ajdbsks but they laughed and were nice about it so i guess it was okay,” one fan wrote.
As one fan recounted, “I met Jude Law, and the only thing I had on me for him to sign was a pad of penguin paper (I was 21 at the time ?). So, in that anxious rushed moment I said ‘WILL YOU SIGN MY PENGUIN PAPER!’ – he looked at me, laughed, and happily obliged. ?”
“At the VMAs red carpet, security was blocking our view so I thought I saw Rita Ora so I started screaming ‘RITA RITA.’ Turns out it was Bebe Rehxa,” a fan admitted.
“Met Miranda Kerr in Central Park and after taking a photo she told me I smelled really good…to which I replied: thanks it’s my sweat ???,” one Twitterer said.
“Once I met @sethmeyers with my dad. My Dad: Seth, can I get a picture? Seth: Sure! my dad whips out camera Seth: You don’t want to be in it? My Dad: No.”
The midterm elections are today, which means you have the opportunity to exercise your civic duty and vote. It’s a crucial election and the stakes couldn’t be higher, which is why so many celebrities have taken to social media to encourage people to get out and vote. Taylor Swift practically set the Internet ablaze in early October when she broke her silence on politics. Her advocacy is reportedly one of the reasons why voter registrations spiked last month, so here’s hoping all the celebrities who posted today inspired people to cast their ballots.
From Demi Lovato (who posted on Instagram for the first time since entering rehab to talk voting) to Leighton Meester, Viola Davis, and Adam Rippon, these 108 celebrities all rocked the vote and posted selfies to mark the occasion. Did you?
Word out of Washington, D.C. on Saturday, according to the New York Times, is that the Senate Judiciary Committee and lawyers representing Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who is accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault during a party while they were in high school have reached a tentative agreement for her to testify publicly on Thursday.
In the coming days, we are sure to see both sides attempt to galvanize support on social media and beyond. Actress Alyssa Milano spoke to Glamour about her efforts to raise money for Ford. “I hope she feels the love and support and the heartache that women feel in standing in solidarity with her,” Milano said. “I want her to know that if she needs anything at all, that I’m here and I want to thank her for her bravery in doing the right thing for the country, even though it’s the harder thing for her personally.”
In yet another #DearIvanka campaign, other celebrities—like Busy Philipps, Amy Schumer, and Sophia Bush—are using their large social media platforms to call on First Daughter and White House senior advisor Ivanka Trump to get the administration to conduct an FBI investigation into the charges.
Philipps writes, “Dear @IvankaTrump, you don’t follow me on social media. But as a public servant, you work for me. You’ve proclaimed yourself a feminist and a champion of women’s rights. Right now, you have an opportunity to fight for women and survivors. Use your access to demand that Professor Ford’s request for a full, fair, trauma-informed investigation by the FBI be held. Use your access to make sure another abuser is not seated on the Supreme Court. #DearIvanka”
Schumer, in typical fashion, didn’t mince words. “Hey @ivankatrump Were you so excited to wear that pill box hat this week? #fun You will be remembered like Eva Braun unless you do something,” she wrote. “It’s not too late.”
Bush, who says Trump does indeed follow her on Instagram, took a different approach in her post. “I figured after the last one of these calls for you to take action, you’d unfollow me. But you’re still following me!! So, let me use this opportunity to call you in,” she said in a caption. “Rather than feeling called out, try to see this as an invitation to merge your words and your actions. Girl. You can do it.
Milano, “Law & Order: SVU” star Mariska Hargitay, Wild author Cheryl Strayed, celebrity stylist Karla Welch and more are also flooding Trump’s feed.
While her father has doubled down on his support of Kavanaugh and called into question why Blasey Ford didn’t report the incident when it happened over 30 years ago, Ivanka Trump has yet to make a public statement on the matter.
Given that it’s 2018, it’s a little surprising to realize that the United States still has no national women’s history museum, nor is there any such building currently under construction. But the nonpartisan National Women’s History Museum organization, founded in 1996, is trying to change that: Members and potential donors gathered on Saturday for a fundraiser for the construction of just such a museum, along with the seventh annual Women’s Making History Awards. The event, held at the Beverly Hills Hotel, honored Kristen Bell, Kathy Bates, Gabrielle Union, and Black Lives Matter Global Network cofounder Patrisse Cullors for their social responsibility accomplishments. Glamour‘s editor-in-chief, Samantha Barry, was on hand to moderate a Q&A with each woman following her recognition.
Women’s history is hugely overlooked: For centuries, it’s generally been white men who have held the power to write themselves into Western history textbooks. What results is a narrative of history that often leaves out the contributions of women and people of color. (If you want some weekend reading, New York Times‘s “Overlooked” obituary series is also doing its part to change that.) The first paid baseball team in America was made up not of men, for example, but women. And then there’s Claudette Colvin, who was arrested at 15 when she refused to give up her bus seat—nine months before Rosa Parks made her famous protest.
That’s exactly why the Women’s Making History Awards exists today: to recognize women who are already making history. Idina Menzel presented an award to Bell to recognize the actress’s work with the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, as well as the social justice-oriented granola bar company Bell co-founded, This Bar Saves Lives.
Actor Michael Ealy then honored Union, who works with the National Advisory Committee for Violence Against Women, for her advocacy for women’s issues and sexual assault victims.
“She was fearless, and she led from the front,” said Union about Marsha P. Johnson, a gay liberation activist who was prominent at the 1969 Stonewall uprising. “A lot of us call ourselves leaders but we stay quiet and we’re in the back. We talk about inclusion but when we go to work, it’s everybody that looks like us.”
“Anytime whole groups of people have been erased, their contributions have been erased, we tend to see them as less valuable,” Union added. “We don’t tend to see their worth.”
Sarah Paulson also gave an amazing tribute to why her American Horror Story costar Bates inspires her more than anyone else: “The work she does on behalf of the Lymphatic Education & Research Network is a striking example of her desire to move towards the greater good,” she said, noting Bates’ role as an international ambassador for those who have lymphatic diseases. Finally, Dawn Lyen-Gardner honored Cullors for founding the Los Angeles-based Dignity and Power Now organization, which advocates for incarcerated people and their families, and for co-founding the Black Lives Matter Global Network.
It’s not certain yet when the museum will finally break ground. In March 2017, a nonpartisan bill was introduced in Congress that would establish it and designate two potential spots on the National Mall—however, it’s yet to be voted on.
For more info or to find out how you can help, check out the organization’s website.
If it’s hard to believe that three full years have passed since Giuliana Rancic stepped down from her co-anchor spot on E! News, that’s because her face has still been everywhere. A consistent red carpet fixture for the better part of two decades, she was fully present for a smattering of viral moments that dominated this year’s awards shows and her Instagram has remained plenty active. Plus, she’s been out promoting other projects, including her eponymously-named Prosecco and a “judgement free” parenting app with her husband, Bill, called Pear.
So, in a way, it seems almost like she hit pause on E! News more so than walking away. But make no mistake: On September 4, Rancic returned to her reign on the nightly show, alongside co-host Jason Kennedy. And she’s got a plan for how to dig back in, at a time when Hollywood is still going through a major reckoning.
“Certainly, in the past year or so, [we’re] having more important conversations, more meaningful conversations, on the red carpet,” Rancic tells Glamour. It’s a marked change from when she began as a correspondent on the network, back in the early aughts. “There was a long period of time in the beginning, really until recently, where viewers wanted to hear about the light things: the beauty, the fashion, the projects. We would do a little bit of everything.”
“I think we’ve gotten away from keeping the focus on the people we’re talking to.”
But, in her view, what’s really changed now—more so than talking about equal pay and inclusion riders on the step and repeat—is the fact that celebrity reporters have gotten away from talking to celebrities about, well, the celebrities themselves. Whereas once the conversation was largely focused on the show, the project, or elements of their personal lives, so much of the dialogue now rests in cultural commentary, which isn’t, innately, a bad thing. But while some are more than happy to take up the role of advocate or social critic, others aren’t quite as cut out for it. Or just don’t care to do it.
And so, Rancic has a philosophy that, right now, sounds at once intuitive and a little bit rogue: “Letting someone just talk about what they want to talk about, and not making them feel like ‘Oh my gosh, I’m going to get asked to talk about something that has nothing to do with me,” she explains. “I want celebrities to feel like, when we do an interview, that it’s about them. I think we’ve gotten away from keeping the focus on the people we’re talking to.”
PHOTO: NBC
If you think this sounds simplistic, it is. You don’t have to tell Rancic, either; she’s aware of that fact. But she also thinks the time has come for us to get back to the basics. It’s a theory she cooked up while she was a consumer, instead of a creator, of celebrity news over the past few years, based on a recurring observation: “It’s like a lot of other voices [are] jumping into conversations that don’t really have anything to do with them, and they’re not necessarily voluntarily doing that.”
It’s also among the reasons she decided to come back to making the news. “That’s honestly one of the things I’ve been thinking about a lot,” she adds, “how to have more direct, honest conversations with people, about things that apply to them. I think if we do a lot of that, it’s a nice way to start getting back on track.”
Ranic isn’t the only person whose wondered whether or not we’re asking too much of red-carpet conversations that, at the end of the day, are about entertainment: Award shows and interviews don’t have to become our thunderdome for hashing out systemic issues. But it’s also not that Rancic thinks we should stick to fluff—not by a long shot. At the end of the day, like a lot of things, it’s all about balance.
“The way you handle these interviews has a lot to do with who you are as a person.”
“You can be serious, and also have fun, and a minute later say something that moves someone. That’s how I am in my life,” she says. “You just have to be able to read the moment. I think a lot of people—even the people who are using the [red carpet] platform for so much good, and putting up these meaningful messages—know that there needs to be that balance.”
In summary, and maybe to say the least: “It’s a really interesting time,” Rancic says with a laugh. “Everyone’s got to be more prepared on the red carpet, but honestly, my key is to be in the moment,” she says. “It really comes down to: The way you handle these interviews has a lot to do with who you are as a person.”
Elizabeth Kiefer is a New York–based writer and regular Glamour.com contributor.
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