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Demi Lovato and Miley Cyrus Get Honest About Body Image Struggles: ‘Be Gentle to Yourself’
Whenever Demi Lovato and Miley Cyrus come together, it’s bound to be good! The 27-year-olds went Instagram Live on Tuesday, March 17, to talk about issues important to them, including body image.
Demi shared advice based on her personal experiences. “I think it’s so important for anybody that has dealt with body images … it’s so important not to get consumed with negative self-talk … It’s OK to be gentle with yourself and to take care of yourself,” she said.
Meanwhile, Miley got candid about her insecurities and recalled how she felt about the reaction to her outfit at the 2013 Video Music Awards. “I went through two to three years when I wouldn’t wear shorts or skirts on stage,” she said. “After the VMAs, after I wore a cute bodysuit and everyone started comparing me to this turkey … I felt so bad about myself.”
Instead of letting the criticism bring her down, she decided to turn it into something positive. “People made like these GIFs that was such a wake-up call for me to use my platform for something else, that’s when I started Happy Hippy,” the pop star added.
She continued, “I was probably 21, just starting to understand myself as an independent person. It was so hurtful to be body-shamed. It affected me in my personal life. Not wearing shorts to the beach … what was so hard about it was my brand has always been so unapologetically myself and being confident … I felt like having this persona was actually kind of fraud that … I wasn’t wearing shorts and even when I wore bodysuits I wore four f–king pair of tights under.”
Similar to Miley, Demi has felt the same pressure from society. However, it wasn’t until recently that she began using her platform to get real about why it’s OK to accept yourself as you are.
In September 2019, she shared an unretouched photo of herself flaunting her swimsuit body. “This is my biggest fear: A photo of me in a bikini unedited. And guess what? It’s CELLULIT!!!!” she captioned it. “I’m just literally sooooo tired of being ashamed of my body, editing it — yes, the other bikini pics were edited and I hate that I did that, but it’s the truth — so that others think I’m THEIR idea of what beautiful is, but it’s just not me.”
Well said!
