Every Time Lizzo Used Her Platform to Preach Body Positivity

Credit: Sara Jaye Weiss/Shutterstock

Every Time Lizzo Used Her Platform to Preach Body Positivity

The truth doesn’t always have to hurt. Lizzo has dedicated herself to helping women accept and love their bodies in the same way that she does. From her efforts, she has delivered countless anthems and motivational quotes to keep her fans on the track toward better body positivity. “It definitely comes with time,” the Grammy winner told Us Weekly exclusively in September 2019. “I wasn’t really given the opportunities or the privileges to feel like a sex symbol when I was growing up. I was a fat black girl in Houston and I didn’t see myself in magazines.” Once Lizzo (real name Melissa Jefferson) entered her twenties, things changed. “I was like, ‘You know what, bitch? I want to be a sex symbol!’” she recalled. “I said that to myself when I was like 22, 23. And I really started to embrace the sexiness about me, not just the cuteness or the beauty. I started to work on it more and more, and I realized the vulnerability that I show when I’m naked is my greatest strength.” [jwplayer 8z8U0BQh] The “Good as Hell” singer quickly became a source for inspiration as her career skyrocketed. “It’s hard because self-love and self-confidence is a personal journey. You’re never gonna believe it until you believe in yourself,” she told Us. “But luckily, now we have so many people you can see yourself in. You can go on the internet or look on TV and see people who were really marginalized and underrepresented in the past. That’s the most important thing. You have to see yourself, find yourself somewhere out there. You’ve got to go on that journey — and I believe in you.” Lizzo also revealed how she decides which naysayers to confront. “I have the best comebacks for trolls. I can put them in their place!” she teased. “But if I do it, I’m feeding the troll and giving it attention. Back in the day, I used to give trolls all the time, but now that I’ve got 4 million followers, man, [I’m not] gonna give somebody a check and 15 minutes of fame! I love being petty, though!” Scroll down to revisit the times the songstress has used her platform to promote body positivity.

Credit: Sara Jaye Weiss/Shutterstock

Every Time Lizzo Used Her Platform to Preach Body Positivity

The truth doesn’t always have to hurt. Lizzo has dedicated herself to helping women accept and love their bodies in the same way that she does. From her efforts, she has delivered countless anthems and motivational quotes to keep her fans on the track toward better body positivity. “It definitely comes with time,” the Grammy winner told Us Weekly exclusively in September 2019. “I wasn’t really given the opportunities or the privileges to feel like a sex symbol when I was growing up. I was a fat black girl in Houston and I didn’t see myself in magazines.” Once Lizzo (real name Melissa Jefferson) entered her twenties, things changed. “I was like, ‘You know what, bitch? I want to be a sex symbol!’” she recalled. “I said that to myself when I was like 22, 23. And I really started to embrace the sexiness about me, not just the cuteness or the beauty. I started to work on it more and more, and I realized the vulnerability that I show when I’m naked is my greatest strength.” [jwplayer 8z8U0BQh] The “Good as Hell” singer quickly became a source for inspiration as her career skyrocketed. “It’s hard because self-love and self-confidence is a personal journey. You’re never gonna believe it until you believe in yourself,” she told Us. “But luckily, now we have so many people you can see yourself in. You can go on the internet or look on TV and see people who were really marginalized and underrepresented in the past. That’s the most important thing. You have to see yourself, find yourself somewhere out there. You’ve got to go on that journey — and I believe in you.” Lizzo also revealed how she decides which naysayers to confront. “I have the best comebacks for trolls. I can put them in their place!” she teased. “But if I do it, I’m feeding the troll and giving it attention. Back in the day, I used to give trolls all the time, but now that I’ve got 4 million followers, man, [I’m not] gonna give somebody a check and 15 minutes of fame! I love being petty, though!” Scroll down to revisit the times the songstress has used her platform to promote body positivity.

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Learning to Love

Lizzo got real about accepting her body after “trying to be thin” in her early twenties. “I’m not going to be able to please everyone with my outward appearance,” she said on Jameela Jamil's "I Weigh" in April 2019. “Someone’s always going to have a critique, someone’s always going to have some negativity to say about me. So all that matters is what I think of it. And I had to go so deep inside myself and look in the mirror. Looking in the mirror and accepting what’s in the mirror is very, very difficult. And right now, I love it every time I look in the mirror.” She added that she “had to unlearn a lot of bulls—t” expectations about her body.

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Not About Her

“Anybody that uses body positivity to sell something is using it for their personal gain. That’s just it. We weren’t selling anything in the beginning. We were just selling ourselves and selling ourselves on the idea — selling ourselves on ourselves, you know?” she told British Vogue in the December 2019 issue. “I’m not trying to sell you me. I’m trying to sell you, you.”

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Baring All

Lizzo received backlash in December 2019 when she twerked at a Lakers game, exposing her thong. “Never ever let somebody stop you or shame you from being yourself,” she responded in an Instagram Live video. “This is who I’ve always been. … I don’t ever want to censor myself because I’m suddenly famous, and I don’t want to censor myself because everyone’s looking at me now. I’m not going to quiet myself. I’m not going to shrink myself because somebody thinks that I’m not sexy to them.”

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Chill Vibes

Jillian Michaels criticized the “Juice” singer’s weight in January 2020. She seemingly reacted when she shared a mantra with her Instagram followers shortly after the Biggest Loser alum’s comments. “I have done nothing wrong. I forgive myself for thinking I was wrong in the first place,” she wrote. “I deserve to be happy.”

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Influencer

“I love the fact that kids love me because I’m making music to make us better, to make us smile, to make you love yourself and I think that children need that more than anything so that they can teach the next generation how to love themselves,” she explained during an appearance on The Project in January 2020. “Love your body.”

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Multidimensional

Lizzo reiterated that she has more to offer than her role in the body-positivity movement. “I’m so much more than that. Because I actually present that, I have a whole career,” she told Rolling Stone in her February 2020 cover story. “It’s not a trend.” Elsewhere in her interview, she shared that she has “come to terms with body dysmorphia and evolved. The body-positive movement is doing the same thing. We’re growing together, and it’s growing pains, but I’m just glad that I’m attached to something so organic and alive.”

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Time for Change

The Michigan native called out TikTok in March 2020 for allegedly discriminating against her content. “Tiktok keeps taking down my videos with me in my bathing suit,” she wrote. “But allows other videos with girls in bathing suits. I wonder why? … Tiktok… we need to talk.” A TikTok spokesperson told Us at the time that the company is “obsessed with Lizzo and the idea of body positivity and living your best life,” adding that the brand removed the video thinking it was in violation of community guidelines but put it back up after determining it was not.

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Workout Queen

The musician clapped back in June 2020. “It may come as a surprise to some of y’all, that I’m not working out to have your ideal body type. I’m working out to have my ideal body type,” she said on TikTok. “And you know what type that is? None of your f—king business.”

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Body-Normative

“You look at the hashtag ‘body positive,’ and you see smaller-framed girls, curvier girls. Lotta white girls. And I feel no ways about that, because inclusivity is what my message is always about. I’m glad that this conversation is being included in the mainstream narrative. What I don’t like is how the people that this term was created for are not benefiting from it,” the singer said in her October 2020 Vogue cover story. “Girls with back fat, girls with bellies that hang, girls with thighs that aren’t separated, that overlap. Girls with stretch marks. You know, girls who are in the 18-plus club. They need to be benefiting from … the mainstream effect of body positivity now. But with everything that goes mainstream, it gets changed. It gets — you know, it gets made acceptable.”

Lizzo added that’s it’s “lazy” for her to just be “body positive.”

She explained, “I would like to be body-normative. I want to normalize my body. And not just be like, ‘Ooh, look at this cool movement. Being fat is body positive.’ No, being fat is normal.”

Credit: Courtesy Lizzo/Instagram

Defending Herself

In December 2020, Lizzo hit back at criticism from fans over her decision to test out a 10-day juice cleanse. “As you know I would normally be so afraid and ashamed to post things like this online, because I feel like as a big girl people just expect if you are doing something for health you’re doing it for like, a dramatic weight loss — and that is not the case,” she said. “In reality, November stressed me the f--k out. I drank a lot, I ate a lot of spicy things and things that f---ed my stomach up.”

The singer-songwriter continued, “I wanted to reverse it and get back to where I was. I’m so proud of myself. I’m proud of my results. My sleep has improved, my hydration, my inner peace, my mental stability, my f---ing body, my f---ing skin, the whites of my eyes, I feel and look like a bad bitch, and I think like, that’s it. I’m a big girl who did a smoothie detox, and I wanted to share that with you guys. I got exactly what I wanted out of it, and every big girl should do whatever the f--k they want with their bodies.”

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Your Body Is Your Body

“I just wanted to say I’ve seen a few of these videos about fat girls who eat healthy and stay active but can’t seem to lose weight,” Lizzo said in a March 2021 TikTok video. “I think these kinds of videos are important – whether they intend to lose weight, or don’t want to lose weight – just to show that every single body is different, and how it functions is different.”

The Grammy winner noted that it does, however, “bother” her when “fake doctors” comment on the videos. “[They say], ‘Oh, you have this’ or ‘You might have this condition’… No!” she continued. “What if I’m just fat? What if this is just my body? Bodies are not all designed to be slim with a six pack. If you’re feeling down on yourself today…just remember that your body is your body. Nobody got your body. So, enjoy that bitch.”

Credit: Courtesy of Lizzo/Instagram

Still Confident After Gaining Weight

“I gained weight : I look TF GOODT,,” the “Juice” performer captioned a January 2022 Instagram video while dancing around in her bathroom wearing a brown bodysuit.

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Saying Sorry

Lizzo issued a public apology in June 2022 after it was brought to her attention that the term “spaz,” which was featured in her song “GRRRLS,” was a “harmful” and offensive slur to the people with disabilities. “Let me make one thing clear: I never want to promote derogatory language,” she began her social media statement.  

The rapper explained: “As a fat Black woman in America, I’ve had many hurtful words used against me so I overstand the power words can have (whether intentionally or in my case, unintentionally). I’m proud to say there’s a new version of ‘Grrrls’ with a lyric change. This is the result of me listening and taking action. As an influential artist I’m dedicated to being part of the change I’ve been waiting to see in the world. Xoxo, Lizzo.”

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'For My Big Girls'

Lizzo broke down in tears during her acceptance speech at the 74th annual Primetime Emmy Awards in September 2022. The "Juice" musician's Amazon prime series — Lizzo's Watch Out for the Big Grrrls — won the prize for Best Competition Program.

“When I was a little girl, all I wanted to see was me in the media. Someone fat like me, Black like me, beautiful like me,” the "Good As Hell" singer said. “If I could go back and tell little Lizzo something, I’d be like, ‘You gonna see that person but, bitch, it’s gonna have to be you.’”

Lizzo wrapped up her speech by saying, "make some noise for my big girls."

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Sending a Message

"People have been calling me fat my entire life, but that was the first time seeing an insult of how I looked, who I am, and my music wrapped into one, and it really hurt me," the "2 Be Loved" artist told Vanity Fair in her November 2022 cover story, which was published online shortly after Kanye West publicly shamed the media for appearing to endorse Lizzo's "unhealthy" body type. "And if one person says it, then another person says it, it multiplies like a f–king virus. ... If enough people on the internet start echoing sentiments about you, it becomes part of your public persona and it's out of your control."

Lizzo explained that she recognizes she's not alone in facing "extreme negativity" online, adding that she wants her resilience to set an example for others going through similar challenges. "So if they can see me get through it on the level and the scale I'm experiencing it, maybe they'll think they can get through it too," she said.

Speaking directly of her haters, she emphasized, "F–k them!"