As you might already know, being famous isn’t all fun and games! There are a ton of harmful and unrealistic beauty standards involved most of the time.
In a recent interview with Glamour U.K. , American Idol alum, Kelly Clarkson , opened up about some of the pressures she has faced in Hollywood to look a certain way, and how she feels like she can’t “compete with that”.
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Kelly Clarkson has always kept it real with fans about her body-image and her refusal to conform to Hollywood’s unrealistic beauty standards.
For example, at the 2018 Billboard Awards, when fans thought that Kelly had slimmed down, she told Entertainment Tonight :
“I have to shout out my whole glam squad. I literally hired Harry Potter and Spanx, it’s all like a sausage.”
Or the time she opened up to *Rolling Stone* about embracing her body type through her music.
“I never wanted to draw attention,” she said. “But for 15 years of my life, no matter if I’m really thin or really not, [weight was] always a talk of discussion. Even when I was on Idol, it was a discussion.”
“I never really wanted to attract attention, because then you talk about it all the time, instead of [your] music.”
“So it was fun to write a song that said, ‘Yeah, you’re right, I am a whole lot of woman, and it’s ok,” she added.
“I came with a brain, and I came with drive and passion and sensuality, and these things that are awesome.”
“If you can’t handle it, that’s totally cool, but you’re not tall enough to ride this ride, then move along. It’s fine.’ We put a fun twist on it.”
Or the time she was sympathetic to her fans who think they’re overweight because they media says that Kelly is.
“I think what hurts my feelings for people is that I’ll have a meet-and-greet after the show and a girl who’s bigger than me will be in the meet-and-greet and be like, ‘Wow, if they think you’re big, I must be so fat to them,'” she revealed on Ellen in 2015.
“We just are who we are. You are who you are,” she said.
Or the time she encouraged everyone to love themselves in an interview with Reebok in 2015.
“There are just some people who are born skinny and with a great metabolism–that is not me. I wish I had a better metabolism,” she said.
“But someone else probably wishes they could walk into a room and make friends with everyone like I can. You always want what someone else has.”
In another conversation with Reebok in 2017, she revisited this topic.
“People think, Oh, there’s something wrong with her. She’s putting on weight. I’m like, ‘Oh, no! I’m sorry, but that represents happiness in my emotional world,'” she said .
Anyway, in a more recent interview with *Glamour UK*, Kelly opened up about feeling like she can’t “compete” with Hollywood’s beauty standards.
“I’ve had this discussion with many females in the industry,” she began.
“I felt more pressure from people actually when I was thin,” she continued.
“When I was really thin and not super healthy because I just was worn out, just working so hard and not keeping healthy habits .”
She revealed that at a certain point in her career she was forced to look at magazine covers and told: “This is what you’re competing with and we’ve got to compete with it.”
“I can’t compete with that. That’s not even my image. That’s not who I am,” she said .
“That’s who they are. We’re all different and it’s okay,” she went on.
“I fought more when I was thinner than I do now, because now I just walk in and I just look at them like, ‘I dare you to say something. I’m happy in my life. I’ll work on me in my time !’”
“Naked! There would be a chick naked on the cover. I’m not joking, literally naked,” she said.
“I was like, ‘Unless I’m doing an “SNL” skit and this is a comedy thing, I’m never going to pull it off !’”
“Even in my thinnest, most fit moment, it’s just not my personality to be naked on the front of a magazine.”
“Mind you, my [ex] husband will tell you, I am totally okay with nudity. I think it is a beautiful thing. I think all of our bodies, whether you’re male or female, we were very beautiful beings .”
“I got on the number 1 television show at my heaviest point, because it was right after I had kids and it was like they didn’t care,” she said.
“Paul hired me from NBC because he loved my personality, he loved that I connect with people and I’m really raw and real. “
“It had nothing to do with my sex appeal or my look aesthetically. It had to do with me as a person.”
“I think it’s really up to artists to force people to have that mentality,” she added .
Kelly went on to say that she thinks Adele is a “goddess” no matter her weight.
“Even like you said, with Adele , I saw pictures of her too,” she said . “I met Adele a long time ago and that girl is like a goddess. I don’t care what kind of weight she’s holding down”.
“You walk in the room and she’s like a force, just physically captivating.”
“If someone wanted to do it for themselves and for their health but that doesn’t change how many times I listened to her record,” she concluded .
