15 Celebrities Who Trailblaze Body Positivity

Everybody has various life, traits, and especially, shape. In fact, people with “plus-size” bodies are prone to suffer under criticism. That propels the “body positivity” movement to sharply develop with an aim to boost body acceptance. There’s still condemnation for this movement as it seemed to approve of obesity and unhealthy lifestyles, which are dangerous for human health. However, more and more people today outspeak of body positivity approval, including celebrities.
In fact, many celebrities went through the ordeal of being body shamed as they have different shapes. Therefore, “body positivity” means the world to them and they become the trailblazer in this movement. Besides, singers and actresses with the hottest shape are also for body positivity and widely share them on their social media platforms.
In this post, we enlisted 15 stars who lead body positivity. From plus-size models and singers to fashion icons, they will hit you hard with their sharing.

#1 Amber Riley

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Kicking off us is Amber Riley, who is known for her role as Mercedes Jones in “Glee”. In an exclusive interview with People, the actress shared about gaining confidence and advice for individuals who struggle with body positivity. “You don't owe anybody a specific body type. You don't owe anybody, whether that's big or small, you don't owe anybody that.", she said.
In 2020, Riley released her single “BGE” (Big Girl Energy) from her EP “Riley” with the same message - to be proud of who you are and love your body. This song attracted huge fans for its inspiration.

#2 Tess Holliday

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The 34-year-old plus-size model and author, Tess Holliday, is one of the most well-known stars in the world of body positivity fueled by social media. She gains nearly two million Instagram followers thanks to her body-positivity vibes. In particular, Holliday is the owner of the hashtag #EffYourBeautyStandards which challenges the beauty standards prioritizing thinness and specific shapes of bodies.
People were outraged and perplexed when she opened up about her struggles with anorexia, wondering how someone who was so outspoken about appreciating her body can also deal with an eating disorder. She shared with Good Morning America: “I am plus size but advocating for diversity and larger bodies, and so I think for people hearing me say I’m anorexic was really jarring.” Holliday went on to claim that the larger problem is “a lack of diversity and representation in the world,” even regarding eating disorders and who has and can struggle with them.
She also doesn't care what people think when she wears what makes her happy, like shapewear and a bare face. "Wearing makeup doesn't make me less of a feminist, & neither does wearing shapewear,” Holliday claimed in an Instagram post.  “It's all about our choice to wear & do what we want with our bodies. I will keep resisting.”

#3 Selena Gomez

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The once-Disney star battled the autoimmune disease lupus and underwent a kidney transplant in 2017. As a result of the transplant, she must take drugs for the rest of her life, and these can induce weight changes. Gomez is discovering how to love her body, even the scar from her kidney transplant, which she first sought to cover up, after experiencing body shaming on social media and in the media. Gomez did not hide her scar when she posed in a swimsuit for her friend's body-positive swimwear line on Instagram.

#4 Ariel Winter

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Ariel Winter grew up her ranks on the hit show “Modern Family,” and she dealt with a slew of body negativity when she hit puberty as her body began transforming. Her sister (also her co-star) Sofia Vergara, helped her embrace her own body. Winter also got breast reduction surgery and has been very open about it and the struggles she went through, including her own mother’s negative responses to her body.

#5 Lizzo

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Lizzo was a shoo-in on this list as the “body positivity” phrase has been intertwined with her long career path. The singer and rapper drew criticism for her Instagram video about a 10-day, smoothie-based detox she was doing. Some believed she was finally becoming "healthy" by reducing weight, while others thought she was giving in to the pressure of diet culture. Lizzo eventually said on Instagram beside a photo of her proudly displaying her figure: “I detoxed my body and I’m still fat. I love my body and I’m still fat. I’m beautiful and I’m still fat. These things are not mutually exclusive.”

#6 Rihanna

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With her label Savage x Fenty, Rihanna has slain the illusion that beauty is only reserved for a certain body type. Her collection includes an inclusive underwear line with cup sizes ranging from 32A to 40DDD and sizes from XS to 3XL. At her Savage x Fenty show during New York Fashion Week, the singer and entrepreneur also promoted size inclusivity by using models of all sizes and shapes, including pregnant models.

#7 Mindy Kaling

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The actress, producer, and writer Mindy Kaling embrace her body thanks to motherhood. After becoming a mother, she stopped the bad habit of skipping meals before the Oscars. Besides, she has also learned to let go, celebrating her body with flattering shapewear since becoming a mother and moving into her 40s, plus being outspoken about embracing the person she sees in the mirror.
In an interview with Shape magazine, Kaling said: “I love to eat at restaurants, I love to eat home cooking, and I don't like restricting my diet. And [now] I'm like, as long as I'm getting enough nutrients and feeling like my heart and my lungs are really getting exercise, I don't really beat myself up about that."

#8 Serena Williams

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In a 2017 essay posted on Reddit, tennis superstar Serena Williams discussed the physical criticism she had experienced, stating that “It has been said I don't belong in women’s sports — that I belong in men’s — because I look stronger than many other women do.”
Williams spoke about how she overcame her body's criticism for having so much strength in an interview with the rapper Common: “Who says I’m too strong? This body has enabled me to be the greatest player that I can be.” Williams continued, “And now my body is in style, so I’m feeling good about it. Like, I’m finally in style! It took a while to get there.”

#9 Alicia Keys

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The singer of the hit “Girl On Fire” was open about her attempt to go bare and stop using makeup in 2016. She created her skincare line, Keys Soulcare, with the goal of empowering people to accept their natural beauty without making wearing makeup a must for attractiveness. The singer adds that unhealthy body ideals hurt both males and girls.
As the mother of young boys, she said with Essence: “For boys, I noticed that they’re very concerned with muscles. So I think that that’s interesting, right? Because we all have these images that have been shown to us in our head about what masculine or feminine is.”

#10 Demi Lovato

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Demi Lovato has battled eating disorders, addiction, and mental illness. On social media and in interviews, Lovato had been honest with their followers about their difficulties. Lovato, who has only recently come into their own, came out as nonbinary in May 2021 and has since shared uplifting posts on social media criticizing diet culture and endorsing body positivity.

#11 Ashley Graham

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Ashley Graham dislikes the term despite being the first "plus-size" model to appear on the covers of Sports Illustrated and Vogue. Fighting for size inclusion, the model and mother publicly declare that she is a size 16. “My brand is about confidence and owning who you are and being honest with who you are,” Graham shared in an interview with WSJ Magazine. “I think that’s incredibly reflective of my Instagram, my YouTube, my podcast. I just wish that I had someone that was as real and honest and open when I was in middle school, high school, moving to New York.”

#12 Aidy Bryant

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Aidy Bryant, a comedian and cast member of "Saturday Night Live," joined the show in 2012 at the age of 25, making her one of the cast's youngest members. Bryant learned about self-deprivation and dieting while growing up in Arizona, the home of tank tops and shorts, but she now realizes how crucial it is to appreciate your body, regardless of its size or form.
Her work on the comedy series "Shrill" provided a ground-breaking analysis of the fatphobia that people with larger frames experience while demonstrating how this prejudice is simply one facet of a person's existence. The program was dubbed "the Mona Lisa of body-positive television" by Vice.

#13 Laverne Cox

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Laverne Cox, a transgender woman of color, has advocated for body positivity for all people regardless of size, shape, gender, or skin tone. Cox is of the opinion that everyone should respect and love themselves for who they are. She has battled for media coverage of trans people and is a supporter of them. She posed bare-chested for an Allure photo shoot to promote body acceptance and awareness. In 2021, the actress collaborated with Smirnoff on a World Pride campaign.

#14 Jameela Jamil

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Actress and proponent of body positivity, Jameela Jamil, has experience dealing with eating disorders. She talked about starving herself for the photoshoot in an Instagram post from January 2021 where she uploaded a picture of herself that she felt was "too fat."
“Eating disorders are a terrible and upsetting thing. This is why I bang on and on about diet culture, because it was my slippery slope to losing all sense of reality and all of my time, energy, sex drive, and joy.”, she shared.

#15 Iskra Lawrence

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Iskra Lawrence is renowned for displaying her undamaged beauty in pristine Aerie advertisements and Instagram pictures. The supporter of body positivity thinks it's important, to be honest about what a real body looks like.
By regularly posting images and videos of her bare body, including one in which she demonstrates how she wears shapewear and images of herself with cellulite, Lawrence normalizes the fact that even a model's body doesn't conform to the absurdly strict beauty standards. She does this in an effort to challenge the unrealistic beauty standards that women have been forced to live with for a long time.
Lawrence has also been open about what makes her feel good while putting together a fancy gown on her Facebook page, occasionally embracing the additional covers of shapewear: “A good old pair of full coverage shapewear that has straps to throw on over your bra,” she revealed in the post. “I wore a see-through lace dress to an event and even though it felt comfortable just wearing a bra and a normal brief undie when the flashes went off it literally looked like I was just in my undies right there in front of hundreds of people on the red carpet.”