Lizzo is supremely talented, widely beloved, and sadly even she is no stranger to body-shaming. She knows how hard self-love can be.
So she has taken to Instagram to share a powerful message about body-positivity.
"I detoxed my body and I’m still fat," Lizzo begins in the written caption to this photo.
She acknowledges: "I love my body and I’m still fat."
"I’m beautiful," Lizzo correctly affirms, "and I’m still fat."
"These things are not mutually exclusive," Lizzo accurately announces.
"To the people who look to me," she addresses her fans and followers, "please do not starve yourselves."
"I did not starve myself," Lizzo reminds them.
‘I fed myself greens and water and fruit and protein and sunlight," Lizzo describes.
"You don’t have to do that," she tells them, "to be beautiful or healthy."
"That was my way," Lizzo acknowledges. "You can do life your way."
"Remember, despite anything anyone says or does," Lizzo advises her devoted fanbase.
In all caps, she writes: "DO WHAT YOU WANT WITH YOUR BODY."
That is some powerfully good advice for anyone, no matter their body type.
"Your body is perfectly yours," Lizzo says in a soft-spoken voiceover in the accompanying video, a montage of her body.
"Even if it ain’t perfect to anybody else," she adds.
"If you only knew the complexities your body possesses," Lizzo suggests, "you would be so proud of it."
"I’m so proud of you," Lizzo says, "for making it this far in a society that gives us a head-start into self-loathing."
"That hands us a dismorphic mirror," she continues.
"And," Lizzo describes, a society that "leaves us desperate to catch up with who we think we should be."
"I’ve spent so much time in this body," Lizzo acknowledges.
Lizzo is 32 years old.
"And," she reminds her followers, "I am no different than you."
"Still struggling to find balance," Lizzo acknowledges about herself.
"Still trying to mend my relationship with food, my anxiety, my back fat," she lists.
It can be extremely difficult to have a normal relationship with food. Anxiety can be life-changing for the worse. And back fat is stigmatized heavily by our culture.
"It gets easier," Lizzo advises her fans who may be struggling with these same issues.
"I spent my hardest days trying to love me," she reflects.
"If I have any advice, it is to eat, drink, move, rest," Lizzo shares.
"Your job is to grow," Lizzo tells her fans.
"Your job is to figure it out along the way," she acknowledges.
Those statements are both absolutely true.
"Regardless of what I or any so-called expert says, you love you," Lizzo advises her followers.
"And," she concludes, "I hope you remember that."
She bared her soul and her body for that powerful message. We hope that it helps many people.
It is not uncommon to struggle with body image, in part because there are still — and it’s almost 2021 — people who think that other people’s bodies are their business somehow.
The fact of the matter is that your body keeps you alive, no matter what flaws (real or perceived) it may have.
Self-love does not come easily in a society that praises humility and brandsthe barest amount of self esteem as unhinged narcissism. We all have a lot to learn from Lizzo.