Throughout her career, Selena Gomez has given us a myriad of reasons to look up to her. Beyond being a chart-topping singer and successful actress, Gomez has also been an empowering advocate for mental health. In case you needed another reason to idolize this talented artist, she recently debunked a common beauty myth—because body positivity is always fashionable.
During Gomez’s recent vacation in Sydney, Australia, she took a brief intermission from enjoying time with her friends to call out body-shamers. Marie Claire explains that after paparazzi captured the first photos of Gomez’s bikini bod after her kidney transplant, apparently some trolls who have nothing better to do than make unsolicited comments on a woman’s body commented on her body.
However, Gomez wasn’t ready to ruin her vacay because of some jerks. Instead, she took to Instagram to post a necessary message about beauty myths. According to E! News, the former Disney star responded to negative comments about her body in the best way possible: with a lighthearted video coupled with an inspirational caption.
In her message, she wrote, “The beauty myth- an obsession with physical perfection that traps modern woman in an endless cycle of hopelessness, self consciousness, and self-hatred as she tries to fulfill society’s impossible definition of flawless beauty. I chose to take care of myself because I want to, not to prove anything to anyone. Wind in her sails.”
ELLE reports that SelGo directed her important caption at people who commented about her weight in recent bikini pictures. Instead of directly responding to these vindictive individuals who made these lewd comments, Gomez used her platform to show her 134 million Instagram followers that they don’t need to prove themselves to anyone either.
After all, body positivity is vital for your mental health. While Psychology Today explains that it can be difficult to embrace your body all of the time, tuning out those hackneyed beauty myths that you need to be perfect is a significant step to enhancing your self-care.
In spite of the disgusting comments Gomez has been subjected to after photogs took pics during her trip, we’re glad that she’s taking care of herself for her and not for anyone else. Keep sailing, Selena.