In the golden age of social media, it’s easy to find yourself swallowed up by the societal pressures constantly being pushed across every media platform. You’re tall, but your Twitter timeline tells you that being short is superior. You’re happy with your body, but Instagram keeps telling you that there are a million things you could still fix. TikTok convinces you that the emotions you feel aren’t valid. With all these ideals being forced on you with the swipe of a finger, it’s hard to keep your head above water. Drowning is easy but learning to swim is worth the agony. Singer Lizzo has found herself struggling to keep floating in the past — but now she has learned to tread through the deepest of waters and she’s ready to share how she did it and how you can do it too.
Miss Lizzo has been booked and busy lately! With the upcoming launch of her new shapewear brand YITTY, her new dance competition series “Watch Out For the Big Grrrls” being released in early April and a new album in the works, she sat down with Carson Daly and Sheinelle Jones from “Today” to discuss the new doors she’s opened, while diving into how she stays confident in the age of social media.
Keeping It Real
Staying real on social media is hard when you have millions (33 million to be precise) judging your every move. Many stars find themselves succumbing to the intense pressure and creating a facade to protect themselves. The Grammy winner got transparent with Today, expressing, “This is who I am, all of me — where does that come from?” She continued, “I feel like we’re all born confident. And I think as we get older, we start to develop insecurities.”
Embracing Who You Are and Reveling In It
The star previously discussed her weight gain in a post to ring in the new year. The artist shared a video via Instagram, where she playfully dances in full glam and a brown bodysuit. New Years’ posts are commonly accompanied with cliche nods to “fresh starts” and “new goals”; however, the post was instead captioned, “I gained weight and I look tf good.”
Many public figures refrain from discussing their weight gain and how their body looks but Lizzo doesn’t hold back — and well that’s good as hell!
Breaking Away From Standards and Lack Of Representation
For the star, the loss of her confidence came from years of seeing herself underrepresented in the media. It wasn’t until recently that we’ve seen plus-size Black women being represented in the entertainment industry, one of the most prominent being Lizzo herself. When represented in the past, plus-size Black women were seen as a punchline — but Lizzo has shown the world that you can be confident despite the beauty standards we’ve been forced to think of as the norm.
She added, “I think I just kind of started to tear those insecurities down and reclaim the confidence I was born with, my God-given confidence that we all have.” As Lizzo said, we must find a way to tear down our insecurities before they consume us.
#Bodypostivity
Lizzo has also spoken publicly about her opinion on the changes in the body positive movement in recent years. Along with the rise of TikTok, we’ve seen stars like Addison Rae emerge through the platform, and fans have begun to place her on the pedestal of the #bodypostivity movement as well despite not being a “plus-sized” woman. It’s been up for debate whether the body-positive movement should be open to all sizes or if it should stay exclusive to plus-sized women.
Lizzo weighed in saying the movement has been taken over by “medium and small girls and people who occasionally get rolls.” She added, “Fat people are still getting the short end of this movement, big brown and black women, queer women.” As she continues to fight to normalize bodies and women who look like her, Lizzo wants everyone to know that being who she is and being happy with herself doesn’t make her some sort of brave superhero — it makes her a human embodying her true self.
Remember Everyone Is a Work In Progress.
When it comes to regaining confidence, it’s a long road until you reach your destination — meaning there will most definitely be some missed turns along the way. Lizzo has even hit a few herself, and with her journey being so public, she’s even faced backlash online for her mistakes. Being as open as she is on her social media platforms, Lizzo shares what she eats and has documented herself partaking in a 10-day juice detox cleanse. This led to an avalanche of backlash as she received hate for “partaking in diet culture.” The star lacked better judgment in her choice to show herself doing a fad diet online to her millions of followers, many being young girls who could be vulnerable to this type of content. But she’s working hard to help break the stigma surrounding body image and self-esteem — and that’s got to count for something.
Lizzo has many talents: singing, playing the flute, rapping and being entirely authentic with her audience when it comes to things that are hard to swallow. Lizzo shining a light on the need for self-esteem and body positivity has helped many young girls who, before her rise to popularity, felt unseen when they looked at the screen. Now as the star grows and learns to take back what’s hers, her audience has been able to grasp how they can too.
