Lizzo Opens Up About Feeling Comfortable With Her Body

Lizzo may be known for her body positivity, but the Grammy winner recently revealed that she didn’t always feel like that.

“I was following people before who I thought were beautiful and they were society’s beauty standard,” Lizzo said on a Zoom for Dove’s Self-Esteem Project, aimed at highlighting how editing and using filters on social media can change how someone feels about themself. “Looking at them made me have this desire to edit or change or think that I wasn’t worthy. I don’t want one person’s beauty to diminish the other.”

“One day I stumbled upon Gabi Fresh. She had the first bikini for fat girls. I was so excited. I was like, ‘She looks like me, right?’ I hit that follow button so hard,” she continued. “That led me to this beautiful world of women who looked like me.”

“As most people know I did an interview about What’s Underneath Project years ago and I took off all my clothes. I took off my wig and talked about the things I loved about myself. I was like, if anybody wants to see how I really look, all they got to do is go to YouTube,” the “Good as Hell” singer said. “From then on, I was like, I have nothing to hide, There’s no shame anymore. I just post myself. It’s like you take me as I am. You don’t have to love me.”

She discussed how she adapted to the body positivity movement. “I’m going to continue to live in this body and survive in this body and be happy and actually enjoy life, I need to find a way to like myself. I was body negative for a long time,” she said. “Most people are thought that body negative is normal, right? Then I became body positive, which is the opposite of that. It’s disruptive.”

She continued, “I believe everything I say about my body. But to push this conversation forward, we need to normalize it. It’s not a political statement. It’s just my body. When you see it, keep pushing. Keep that same energy that you keep with all the other bodies you see. That’s what body normative really means to me. I’m here, don’t say anything. it’s not a statement. It’s my body.”

Earlier this week, Lizzo stripped down, literally to her Instagram followers. “WELCOME TO TAURUS SEASON,” she wrote. “To celebrate I wanna give y’all this unedited selfie…now normally I would fix my belly and smooth my skin but baby I wanted show u how I do it au natural—I am excited to be partnering with @dove and the #DoveSelfEsteemProject which is helping to reverse the negative effects of social media and changing the conversation about beauty standard. Let’s get real y’all.”