Celebrity

Ariana Grande Reveals Her “Unhealthiest” Time & Calls Out TikTok Body Shamers

“I was on a lot of antidepressants and drinking on them and eating poorly and at the lowest point of my life.”

by Jake Viswanath
Ariana Grande Reveals Her “Unhealthiest” Time & Calls Out TikTok Body Shamers
NBC/NBCUniversal/Getty Images

Being in the public eye comes with an increased amount of scrutiny on everything about your life, but Ariana Grande has no time for body shaming. The Wicked star took time away from shooting the upcoming films to film a TikTok video on April 11 responding to recent comments made about her body. “I’m not good at it and I don’t like it, but 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,” she began her more than three-minue video.

The two-time Grammy winner explained that what people consider to be healthy isn’t the same for everyone, in response to people calling her too “skinny” or worried about her health. “There are many different ways to look healthy and beautiful,” she said, reiterating that “healthy can look different.” Grande addressed photos of her body from 2018 that fans were calling “healthy” in comparison to her current look, explaining that her 2018 self was her “unhealthiest version.”

“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,” she said. “And 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 be... Something good might come of it, I don’t know.”

The 29-year-old singer’s overall message to fans was to become “less comfortable” with commenting on people’s bodies, no matter what their intention is. “If you think you’re saying something good or well-intentioned, whatever it is, healthy, unhealthy, big, small, this, that, sexy, not sexy, I don’t... we just shouldn’t,” she said. “We should really work towards not doing that as much. 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 toward.”

Grande concluded her video by encouraging her fans to be gentler toward themselves and each other. “I think you’re beautiful. No matter what you’re going through,” she said. “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.”