Like many moms across the country, Dancing With the Stars pro Lindsay Arnold felt an unfair, unnecessary yet very real societal expectation to “bounce back” after giving birth.
“I feel like it’s gotten better, but there still is this pressure to bounce back to fit a certain mold, especially someone like me who is a fitness trainer,” Lindsay, 32, exclusively shared with Us while promoting her partnership with Stitch Fix on Monday, August 10. “My whole mantra and what I try to give to my followers and to my members of The Movement Club is to just remind them to embrace their body and embrace the strength that it has.”
Although Lindsay — who shares three children with husband Sam Cusick — is a professional dancer, and to many upholds a certain cultural beauty standard, she’s the first to admit that she also experiences feelings of insecurity.
“I’ll throw on 15 outfits and sit there and pick everything apart and be insecure because it’s a very natural thing that we are all going to feel,” she said. “But I remind myself of what my body has done — the strength that it’s had to create life, to sustain life, to take care of kids, toddlers, do all the things.”
After welcoming baby boy Hayes in June, Lindsay partnered with Stitch Fix to challenge the unrealistic pressure pregnant people feel to “bounce back” after childbirth.
New data from the styling service claims mothers experience a 30 percent drop in style confidence after childbirth. Forty percent of moms say they still don’t feel like themselves when getting dressed two or more years after giving birth.
“That’s why I was so drawn to Stitch Fix is that it’s another brand that is truly changing the game for women and helping them find their fashion sense, find clothes that they actually feel good wearing,” she said. “You’re finding pants and items that actually fit your body right now, and that’s a beautiful thing to celebrate.”
With Stitch Fix, Arnold has been able to work with a personal stylist who considers her current reality and need for clothes that make her feel confident but also can handle breastfeeding, spit-ups, diaper changes and, well, everything in between.
“I think it’s so easy in this culture to feel like we need to bounce back from whatever it is to always stay in this pristine, premium phase of life. I’m truly just embracing everything about postpartum,” Lindsay said less than two weeks after traveling from her home in Utah to Palm Springs, California, for Dancing With the Stars Con. “For me, it’s embracing the changes in my body, embracing the different changes with my fitness level through The Movement Club, and really focusing on just moving my body no matter what phase of life I’m in.”
As Lindsay prepares to say goodbye to summer, the So You Think You Can Dance alum plans to continue celebrating her body.
When asked to share a message to other women, Lindsay delivered a piece of advice that will never go out of style.
“I think it’s about really focusing on what your body has done and really applauding it in that way,” she said. “Rather than trying to applaud a certain way that it should look or any of those kinds of pressures that the outside world can bring in.”
