American Singer Ariana Grande has called on fans to be “gentler and less comfortable” about remarking on her and other peoples’ bodies after recent scrutiny of her appearance on social media.
In a TikTok video, Ariana Grande said she had a body that is “paid such close attention to”, so “wanted to address” concerns.
It comes after some users commented on her apparent recent weight loss.
Grande said they were “comparing my current body” to “the unhealthiest version of my body”.
The 29-year-old US star explained: “I was on a lot of antidepressants and drinking on them and eating poorly and at the lowest point of my life when I looked the way you consider my healthy, but that in fact wasn’t my healthy.
“I know I shouldn’t have to explain that, but I do feel like maybe having an openness and some sort of vulnerability here will [mean] something good might come from it. I don’t know but that’s the first thing. Healthy can look different.”
‘Many different kinds of beautiful’
She continued: “The second thing is, you never know what someone is going through. Even if you are coming from a loving place and a caring place, that person probably is working on it or has a support system that they are working on it with.
“You never know. So be gentle with each other and with yourselves.”
Stressing that “there are many different kinds of beautiful,” Ariana Grande suggested fans should avoid making even “well-intentioned” remarks about how “healthy, unhealthy, big, small, this, that, sexy, non-sexy” people may look.
“There are ways to compliment someone or to ignore something that you see that you don’t like, that I think we should help each other work towards,” she said. “We should aim toward being safer, and keeping each other safer.”