Rihanna, Kelly Clarkson and Ashley Graham are among celebs leading movement to love our ‘mom bods’ and ‘thick figures’
CLAPPING back on social media and refusing to edit photos are just a few ways these stars have been publicly celebrating their natural bodies and curves.
While the pressure is on for them to look a certain way, these female celebs have stood firm in loving and sharing their bodies as they are, regardless of size.
LIZZO
Lizzo is no stranger to being criticized for her size, but she never lets the naysayers get to her. Instead, she is constantly posting whatever she wants to social media while wearing what she pleases.
In 2022, Lizzo took to Instagram to embrace her curves.
In a Reel, she showed off her body as she sported a pink, floral maxi dress. Her hair was slicked back in a ponytail with her natural curls as the stars of the show.
She showed off her bum and expressed her self-love for herself.
“Embracing my back rolls & showing them love,” she captioned her video.
ASHLEY GRAHAM
Plus-size model Ashley Graham is a constant advocate for body positivity.
In October 2020, Graham posted a sizzling Instagram photo in which she was naked, candidly showing off her body. This came after welcoming her son into the world several months before.
She captioned the fiery photo “nakie big girl.”
While talking to People in July of that same year, Graham further embraced her body by accepting her stretch marks in a swimsuit shoot for her size-inclusive swimwear line – which ranges from size four to 24.
In her interview, she explained why she didn’t alter the final images with Photoshop.
“There’s always a question of what do you want us to retouch, and what do you want us to take out? And I said, ‘Nothing’, except from a clamp holding up the DIY backdrop,” she said.
Speaking of the photo shoot she said: “It looks so simple and beautiful, but powerful.”
“I’ve got more weight on me. I’ve stretch marks, and in the beginning I really had to have a lot of conversations with myself and tell myself, ‘Okay, new body, new mindset.’
“But after this photo shoot, I felt so empowered because I was like, ‘Yes. I look good. I feel good. This is my new mom bod’.”
RIHANNA
In 2018, in an interview with British Vogue, Rihanna opened up about her weight gain and learning to embrace her “thicc” body.
While she was embracing her body, Rihanna said she planned to hit the gym – not for weight loss though. Rather for health and strength.
“I’m about to get back into the gym and stuff, and I hope I don’t lose my butt or my hips or all of my thighs. I’ll lose some but not all,” Rihanna said.
“And I think of my boobs, like, ‘Imma lose everything, everything goes!’ But, you know, it comes with a price. You want to have a butt, then you have a gut.”
SELENA GOMEZ
Selena Gomez’s apparent weight gain seemed to be a hot topic at the beginning of 2023. Gomez soon decided to address critics in a TikTok live, where she shared that her lupus medication caused her weight to fluctuate.
“When I’m taking it, I tend to hold a lot of water weight, and that happens very normally. When I’m off of it, I tend to kind of lose weight,” Gomez said in the video.
She also stated that she’s not a model and “never will be,” and told critics to “go away” if they didn’t understand as she doesn’t believe “shaming people” for their bodies.
And it seems that the singer and actress was already embracing her body way before opening up.
In a TikTok posted in the summer of 2022, Selena Gomez showed some body positivity while wearing a purple and orange patterned one-piece swimsuit.
With her hair topped in a casual messy bun, she had a message for her followers.
As she sunbathed, she mouthed along to an audio by YouTuber Tasha K.
The clip which she captioned “vaca self” began with a voice saying “suck it in.” Putting her foot down, Selena said, “I’m not sucking sh*t in. Real stomachs is coming the f**k back, okay?”
DEMI LOVATO
In 2019, Demi Lovato posted an unedited bikini photo embracing her cellulite, according to USA Today.
Wearing a high-cut leopard-print bikini, the songstress, who has opened up about her struggle with an eating disorder in the past, posed with one of her thighs facing the camera.
“This is my biggest fear. A photo of me in a bikini unedited,” Lovato wrote in the caption.
She went on to write that she was “literally sooooo tired of being ashamed of my body,” and admitted that the prior bikini photos she’s posted have been edited.
She told her supporters that she’s “back in tv/film while not stressing myself with a strenuous workout schedule before 14 hour days.”
“This is what I got,” she wrote. “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.
“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.”
AMY SCHUMER
Amy Schumer has embraced her body on multiple occasions. She once proudly opened up about her weight while delivering a joke on stage when accepting an award at Glamour UK’s 2015 Woman of the Year ceremony.
She told a story about a college hookup that did a number on her self esteem, according to PopSugar.
She said: “I’m not going to apologize for who I am and I’m going to actually love the skin that I’m in.
“I’m not gonna be striving for some other version of myself.”
In a moment of vulnerability, she disclosed her weight when she said: “I’m probably like 160 pounds right now and I can catch a d**k whenever I want. Like, that’s the truth. It’s not a problem.”
KELLY CLARKSON
While Kelly Clarkson’s weight fluctuated throughout her career, she learned to embrace her shape and in 2017 said: “I don’t obsess about my weight.”
She decided to focus on her career instead.
Clarkson spoke about her song “Whole Lotta Woman,” a song inspired by the focus on her physical appearance.
She told Rolling Stone: “I never wanted to draw attention. But for 15 years of my life, no matter if I’m really thin or really not, [weight was] always a talk of discussion.
“Even when I was on Idol, it was a discussion. I never really wanted to attract attention, because then you talk about it all the time, instead of [your] music.”
“So it was fun to write a song that said, ‘Yeah, you’re right, I am a whole lot of woman, and it’s ok,” she continued about the track.
MINDY KALING
In 2019, Mindy Kaling who has long promoted body positivity, took to Instagram to embrace her body and encourage others to do the same, per E News.
“IDK who needs to hear this but,” Kaling wrote on Instagram, “WEAR A BIKINI IF YOU WANT TO WEAR A BIKINI. You don’t have to be a size 0.”
The then 40-year-old donned a pair of bikinis by Tory Burch and Flagpole. She shared that vacationing in Hawaii inspired her to flaunt her curves.
“What I was struck about Hawaii is that everyone wears bikinis,” she shared.
“It does not matter what your body type is. You rock a bikini because you’re in Hawaii. There’s so much body positivity there, that I, who is always really shy about my body, would wear bikinis.”