Ariana Grande and fans' "concerns" about her body

«Ariana Grande looks worryingly thin», «Very controversial opinion but she’s seriously too thin … I’m worried for her», «Why is she so thin?» or «What did she do to her face?» are just some of the tweets that have appeared online about her body, both recently and over the past decade. This time, however, following the example of Selena Gomez, Lizzo and other celebrities, the singer has decided to respond. In a video posted on TikTok just before Wicked was shot, she appeared in a hoodie, little make-up, with her hair up and a cup of coffee in her hand to allay the "concerns" of fans and haters. She urged them to show more respect, not to dwell on superficial judgements and to stop body shaming:

«I just wanted to address your concerns about my body and talk a little bit about what it means to be a person with a body and to be seen and to be paid such close attention to. I think we could be—I think we should be gentler and less comfortable commenting on people’s bodies no matter what. If you think you’re saying something good-or well-intentioned, whatever it is: healthy, unhealthy, big, small, this, that, sexy, not sexy, we just shouldn’t. We should really work toward not doing that as much. There are ways to compliment someone or to ignore something you see and you don’t like that I think we should help each other work toward, just to aim toward being safer and keeping each other safer».

Ariana went on to remind us that «there are many ways to look healthy and beautiful,» and what may appear as beautiful or healthy does not always reflect reality; indeed, our prejudice and dominant aesthetic standards often do not match real physical or mental health:

«I know personally for me, the body that you have been comparing my current body to was the unhealthiest version of my body. 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».

The American star, who previously spoke about the complicated time in her life following the Manchester bombing in May 2017 that killed 23 people at the end of one of her concerts, added that she hopes her vulnerability and public exposure will lead to something good by raising awareness about keeping unnecessary comments about others' bodies to herself.

Ariana stresses that more empathy should be shown because «you never know what someone is going through». And even if you mean well, if you try to be loving and encouraging, making the "wrong" comment about your weight or appearance in general can trigger or reinforce self-esteem issues, dysmorphia or eating disorders and reinforce the idea that your weight also determines your worth as a person. Therefore, she concludes her video message by reminding us that there are many different kinds of beauty, all of which have their justification, «no matter what you’re going through, no matter what weight, no matter how you like to do your makeup these days, no matter what cosmetic procedures you’ve had or not or anything».