The Anti-Wellness Celebrity Icon Is Here

When I was 13, soon after my parents divorced, my dad forced me to go on a father-son camping trip. Of course, I had no choice but to smuggle a big stack of shiny tabloids for sustenance until we returned to civilization. The magazines were full of interviews with 2000s-era reality stars riding the wave of fast fame: the nitty-gritty details of their diets? Their go-to workouts? The readers (me) demanded answers!

Us Weekly may have declared “Stars — They’re Just Like Us!” but that couldn’t have been further from the truth. Here I was, reading about how Tracy Anderson’s signature workout was the key to “Hollywood legs,” while languishing in a muddy field, surrounded by flies, at a campsite without a working shower.

Back then, celebrities boasted about their dedication to wild health-centric routines, like Beyoncé’s master cleanse and Angelina Jolie’s meditation hour. It was the beginning of the onslaught that we now, of course, call “wellness,” but the term hadn’t yet entered the mainstream lexicon.

Fast-forward 20 years to now, the mid-2020s, and we’re in the throes of the wellness boom — it’s projected to be a more than $7 billion industry by the end of 2025. And in due course, there will likely be backlash to it.

Now, as Bella Hadid uses hundreds of dollars worth of supplements and Mark Wahlberg wakes up at 2:30 a.m. to hit the gym, it’s also not uncommon for other famous people to tell us how they’re shunning the wellness industrial complex — or even basic hygiene. If you thought the J-Law era of "relatable" celebrity was gone forever, well, celebs becoming beloved for their less than picture-perfect habits suggests otherwise. They are real, they insist. Are they — dare we ask — just like us?

Two famous couples — Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard and Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis — were pioneers of this shift, though not without growing pains. In 2021, both pairs revealed that they don’t typically bathe their kids unless they can smell them or physically see dirt on their bodies. At the jump, the Internet’s collective reaction was a resounding “ew!” causing a stir that four years later continues to be fodder for memes and viral moments.

But those beleaguered celebrity parents were on to something — on some level, their fans felt closer to them after they revealed themselves as everymoms and everydads. Their stars continued to rise.

Now, in 2025, we’re seeing the vibe shift in full swing: When it comes to wellness, at least, celebrities are winning over fans by letting it all hang out — proverbially speaking, of course — and confessing that they aren’t always the picture of Hollywood perfection.

Chelsea Handler has said she doesn’t wash her legs. And when the beloved America Ferrera called not showering for a few days her “guilty pleasure,” it sealed the sense that cleanliness was nowhere near godliness in the eyes of fans.

What’s to credit for the change? Perhaps living through a pandemic has made us a little more comfortable with the idea that, if you’re chilling at home, showers are optional — whether or not you have a net worth of $200 million.

The polished influencer aesthetic of recent years now feels distant.

The anti-wellness energy, however, extends beyond personal hygiene. No celebrity fits that bill more than the proudly mascara-streaked Charli XCX, who defined summer 2024 by singing about staying up all night “bumpin’ that.” In a matter of weeks, she became the avatar for the antithesis of the viral skin care and workout routines that swarm (and exhaust) so many of our FYPs. “Welcome,” the wellness-fatigued among us seemed to say, in unison. Rosalía felt it too, gifting Charli a cigarette bouquet for her 32nd birthday. Instead of hampering her career, the 365-party-girl’s brand of hedonism skyrocketed it, landing her everywhere from Saturday Night Live to Coachella.

Similarly, Irish heartthrob Paul Mescal has taken his own anti-wellness stance. He refused to stop smoking and drinking while getting in shape for Gladiator 2, despite his trainer’s requests. Secret “brat” confirmed.

It’s not just about smoking and partying. Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star Lisa Barlow has become somewhat of an anti-wellness icon for starting her day with “four Kit-Kats” and a 9 a.m. Diet Coke. She’s described the food in Italy as “too fresh” while living off Taco Bell. The fan reaction? They love her for it.

Zoom out, and you’ll observe a wider cultural shift toward embracing imperfection. In a moment when the accessibility of Ozempic and cosmetic dermatology means that, for the well-resourced, perfection is in their grasp, knowing that some celebrities instead allow themselves to be more human is, well, humanizing. Suddenly, the polished influencer aesthetic of recent years now feels distant, a little dated, and crucially, less aspirational. Hell, even the high priestess of wellness, Gwyneth Paltrow, is eating carbs and cheese again. While it’s cliché and may sound like a mantra from a wine mom’s home decor, life really is too short to aim for perfection. Eat the damn cheese and skip the shower, if you so please.

In a world of constant self-optimization, sometimes, to channel New York Housewife Dorinda Medley, it’s OK to be “not well, b*tch!”