Hollywood's unrealistic beauty standards are no joke. It is a fantasy world and its illusions reinforce notions of beauty that can make you feel like you aren't good enough. But it's empowering to see female stars who refuse to fall victim to these absurd rules. Celebrities like Beyoncé, Dascha Polanco and Denise Bidot are just a few who have gotten real about the pressures they've experienced to look "perfect." They are all about body positivity, self-love, and embracing that they've got–curves, body hair and all!
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Social media has helped shatter the idea that perfection is conforming to Eurocentric standards of beauty. Regular people are using these platforms to make people who never saw themselves being represented in magazines, movies, and TV finally feel seen and accepted. There has been a cultural shift towards focusing on your own happiness regardless of what ignorant haters think.
The conversation about body positivity and self-love has become mainstream and celebrities are now more comfortable than ever before with speaking their truth sans filter. Here are a few of our favorite ladies who are defining their own beauty standards and not giving AF what society has to say about it!
–Additional reporting by Johanna Ferreira and Sugey Palomares.
Beyoncé is a boss, but she doesn't strive to be like everyone else.
Her body wasn't able to snap back immediately after her complicated pregnancy with twins, Sir and Rumi, that culminated in an emergency C-section–and she is OK with that. "To this day my arms, shoulders, breasts, and thighs are fuller," she told Vogue for their September 2018 issue. "I have a little mommy pouch, and I’m in no rush to get rid of it. I think it’s real. Whenever I’m ready to get a six-pack, I will go into beast zone and work my ass off until I have it. But right now, my little FUPA and I feel like we are meant to be."
Bella Thorne only shaves when she wants to.
She snapped a picture of her leg that showed a serious amount of body hair in 2017 with the caption, "OK fine. I’ll shave." It might not seem a big deal to some, but Bella's bold move was a lot more body positive than you'd think. It proves that women shouldn’t feel ashamed of something as normal as body hair. This also isn’t the first time she speaks up about this. She also tweeted the best response ever when a fan send her a video criticizing her armpit hair. "Hahaha don't they know I never shave?" she said. Judging by this recent red bikini picture where she flaunted her armpit hair, she isn't letting critics stop her.
Rihanna could care less if you think she’s fat.
The internet speculated about Rihanna'a supposed weight gain for weeks in 2017. While we absolutely love that she's embracing her thicker side, some social media fat-shaming, trolling and other ridiculousness (Barstool Sports, we're looking at you) went on for days. RiRi responded though! She posted a genius meme on Instagram that said it all: "If you can’t handle me at my 2007 Gucci Mane, you don’t deserve me at my 2017 Gucci Mane," the side-by-side meme of rapper Gucci Mane read. Talk about clapping back!
Denise Bidot understands that beauty standards also have a cultural connection.
"For every woman, self-love is a journey. And it's not always beautiful but it's real," she told us recently. "Some days are better than other days, and I think by launching this movement, I've also allowed myself more freeway to just be myself."
Dasha Polanco inspires other women to love their curves--and it starts with you.
"There's a lot of insecurity within every person–woman or man. But the only one in charge of changing that is you. It's all in your way of thinking," she shared with Today in 2016.
Taraji P. Henson pushes other women to embrace their own beauty--whatever that is.
"If you have a big butt, enhance it. That's very in today! If you have big eyes, big hair, whatever it is you love about yourself, just celebrate it," she told InStyle in early 2017.
Christina Aguilera doesn't care what people have to say about her curves.
"During the promotion of my album Stripped, I got tired of being a skinny, white girl. I am Ecuadorian but people felt so safe passing me off as a skinny, blue-eyed white girl," she said in 2012.
Salma Hayek says that it all comes down to loving what you see in the mirror.
“People often say that ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder,’ and I say that the most liberating thing about beauty is realizing that you are the beholder. This empowers us to find beauty in places where others have not dared to look, including inside ourselves," she wrote in the foreword to Iman's 2015 book The Beauty of Color.
Demi Lovato writes her own rules when it comes to beauty standards.
"My genetics gave me a curvy figure, and I’ve come to understand that in the Latina culture, that is beautiful. I no longer look at my body and think, ‘Oh my gosh, I have such a fat butt,'" she shared with Glam Belleza Latina in 2014.
Selena Gomez made sure to let fat-shamers know that she's better than that.
Selena's kidney transplant permanently changed her body but that didn't stop insensitive trolls from making fun of her curvier figure earlier this year. The entertainer responded in the classiest way with a video montage showing her living her best bikini life on a boat with her friends. "The beauty myth–an obsession with physical perfection that traps modern women in an endless cycle of hopelessness, self-consciousness and self-hatred as she tries to fulfill society’s impossible definition of flawless beauty," she wrote. "I chose to take care of myself because I want to, not to prove anything to anyone."
Eva Mendes doesn't stress being perfect.
"I've gained most of the weight back because that was a lot for me to lose. I don't like the hard and toned look," she explained about gaining weight after filming The Place Beyond The Pines.
Gina Rodriguez is committed to rising above unrealistic expectations of what she should look like.
The actress wrote a beautiful message on Instagram about body acceptance to celebrate her Women's Health magazine May 2016 cover. "Today, is a pretty special day for me," she wrote. "Doing the cover of Women's Health Magazine was monumental to me as growing up it wasn't often a curvy girl or a women of color, graced the cover of magazines I loved. My curves are healthy and strong and I work hard to feel good in my skin, I work hard to combat the images that make me go inward and destroy my self-acceptance/confidence. No longer will I allow those lies to win. Beauty belongs to everyone. This cover was a triumph for me and I hope women out there, of all body types and cultures, know when I stand on that cover, I do not stand there alone, I stand there with each and every one of you."
Ignorance won't make Mindy Kaling skip a beat.
"If someone told me that I was stupid or that I wasn't a leader, or that I wasn't witty or quick or perceptive, I'd be devastated," she told The Guardian in 2015. "If someone told me that I had a gross body, I'd say, 'Well, it's bringing me a lot of happiness.' Like, I'm having a fine time of it. Having my priorities aligned like that has helped me have a happier life, I think."
Chrissy Teigen is proud of her stretch marks.
Her model days didn't stop her from proudly posting them on social media. "Stretchies say hi!" Chrissy captioned a 2015 Instagram photo that showed her stretch marks off.
Lady Gaga shut haters down with a powerful message that served to uplift her fans.
Lady Gaga gracefully responded to haters who focused on picking apart her body when she crushed the Super Bowl Halftime Show in 2017. "I heard my body is a topic of conversation so I wanted to say, I'm proud of my body and you should be proud of yours too," she wrote on Instagram. "No matter who you are or what you do. I could give you a million reasons why you don't need to cater to anyone or anything to succeed. Be you, and be relentlessly you. That's the stuff of champions. thank you so much everyone for supporting me. I love you guys. Xoxo, gaga."
Ashley Graham is a body positivity queen.
"The thing that I really want to promote and that I want women to understand is that it’s not about wanting something else; it’s about being self-assured about your size and also just loving your body," she told Flare magazine in 2014.
Paris Jackson isn't afraid to call out the fashion industry for their role in making people feel insecure.
When Ariel Winter changed her perspective she started loving her body more.
The Modern Family star grew up on TV and experienced a lot of bullying over her changing body. "I decided that instead of pleasing these other people, I’ll just spend that time pleasing myself," Ariel told Refinery 29. "Those people are going to be rude to me regardless of what I do, so I should just try and be happy with what I am.”
Hilary Duff told body-shamers what they could kiss if they had a problem with her body.
The actress slammed tabloids who posted photos of her on vacation with her son, Luca, and pointed out her cellulite. "I am posting this on behalf of young girls, women, and mothers of all ages," she wrote on Instagram last year. "I'm enjoying a vacation with my son after a long season of shooting and being away from him for weeks at a time over those months. Since websites and magazines love to share 'celeb flaws' – well I have them! My body has given me the greatest gift of my life: Luca, 5 years ago. I'm turning 30 in September and my body is healthy and gets me where I need to go. Ladies, lets be proud of what we've got and stop wasting precious time in the day wishing we were different, better, and unflawed. You guys (you know who you are!) already know how to ruin a good time, and now you are body shamers as well." Boom!
Adele recognizes that the power of individuality can conquer insecurities.
"I do have body-image problems, for sure, but I don't let them rule my life at all," she told SiriusXM in 2015. "And there's bigger issues going on in the world than how I feel about myself and stuff like that. There's only one of you, so why would you want to look like anyone else?"
