VALERIE BERTINELLI
“Joy is available to anyone who wants it without having to fix or change anything about yourself. Yes, I could lose ten pounds, and wouldn’t complain if I lost twenty, but my outlook is not dependent on it. Today, in this body, I am ready to embrace myself as joyful and happy. I don’t want to waste time anymore.” People Magazine
MIA KANG
“Being able to say you are a conscious, responsible human being is more important than losing 5 pounds or having abs. Women are tired of being told what they should look like. It’s time to normalize normalness. And I want to create that safe and honest space for people to feel good about themselves.” InSTYLE
GRACE VANDERWAAL
“Our generation talks so much about self-love and body confidence, yet I believe we have the most unrealistic standards of any other generation. Insecurities, especially in girls, are really affected because of social media…that need for validation.” GL
TINX
“We talk so much about our physical bodies, but what about our mental health? That’s why I started posting a therapy selfie every Wednesday. I’m as proud, if not more proud, of the work that I do on my mental health as I am about the work I do at the gym.” People Magazine
BROOKE BUTLER
“I don’t think there’s ever really a full recovery from eating disorders. You have to work at it every day. Of course, there are mornings when I don’t exactly love what I see in the mirror. Then I’ll make a point to look at everything I’m nitpicking about myself my stomach, my legs, my arms, and imagine that I’m talking to someone else. If I were talking to someone I love, like my little brother or my mom, could I tell them the terrible things I say to myself during the worst of my eating disorder? Of course not! I just have to focus on not saying those things to myself, either. At the end of the day, you can’t start recovering from an eating disorder until you learn to accept and love yourself. The only person who can truly decide if you’re going to start your recovery is you. You have to be 100% determined to do it. But once you realize all the fun, happiness, joy, and accomplishments disordered eating causes you to miss out on, that’s when you’ll find the will to take a different road. And know that I’m right there on it with you.” GL
CAMILA MENDES
“I’ve learned that positive people attract positive people, and if you’re happy with yourself, you become a better person who’s able to live a truthful, authentic life. It requires a lot of patience to deal with hate online. At the end of the day, if people are going on social media to spread hate, then I don’t respect them. So why would I care what they say about me? I knew I wasn’t taking care of myself, and that would have me feeling insecure. Now I don’t have the same anxiety I used to about food and my body. And I’m not putting all my self-worth in my appearance. There’s so much more to life than that.” InSTYLE
ANNA CHLUMSKY
“I wasn’t getting jobs, I wasn’t getting booked, I was told I was too fat or too ugly. You’re living on a risk-reward system, and that can be extremely damaging. It was an uphill battle to believe in myself at all. But I knew I was intelligent, and I knew I wanted to get my education.” People Magazine
NATALIE EMMANUEL
“When it comes to body image, we’ve been fed this narrative where we have to fit this one ideal. I just have to remind myself that I’ve been told a lie. I look in the mirror sometimes if I’m feeling self-conscious about some part of my body and I just tell it, out loud, ‘I love you, little roll here. I love you, little scar here. Oh my God, that’s like a memory. Don’t change. You’re beautiful.’ I feel super silly doing it at times, but it does kind of work in a way. It sort of helps hack my brain. It’s empowering to say, I’m in love with all of this.” allure Magazine
VALERIE BERTINELLI
“Yes, I’d like to lose the weight. But I may never lose the weight. How do I love me for who I am right now? Today. In this body. At this age. I am trying my darnedest to get rid of decades of feeling ‘less than’ because of the way I look. The whole journey for me of gaining weight, losing weight and gaining weight and losing weight is because I never dealt with the nasty, dusty emotions that keep hurting me and aren’t doing me any service.” People Magazine