Some of our favourite women had some awesome things to say about staying healthy, learning to love their bodies (or at least like them, most of the time) in 2014 and we think that deserves a hearty high-five.
In her wonderful memoir Yes Please Amy Poehler wrote of choosing not to rely on her looks to get ahead with her career.”Once I decided that, then it was freeing — not only for my work, because vanity is a tough thing to have in comedy — but I didn’t care as much if people thought I was pretty or not pretty.”
Gabourey Sidibe had this to say to bullies on the internet post the Golden Globes: “To people making mean comments about my GG pics, I mos def cried about it on that private jet on my way to my dream job last night. #JK” — Twitter @GabbySidibe
Melissa McCarthy was honest about how some of the cruel remarks made about her body affected her: “I’ve never felt like I needed to change. I’ve always thought, ‘If you want somebody different, pick somebody else.’ But sure, criticism can sometimes still get to me. Some things are so malicious, they knock the wind out of you,” she told People magazine.
Helen Mirren on becoming an ambassador for L’Oreal this year at the age of 69, “ “I am not gorgeous, I never was, but I was always OK-looking and I’m keen to stay that way,” the actress told The UK Guardian.
Jennifer Garner had this great thing to say when people start talking about her “baby bump” during an appearance on Ellen earlier this year. Garner also proved the point that there is a general consensus that it’s OK to comment on women’s bodies – pregnant, not pregnant, whenever. Actually, it’s not. “”So I asked around and apparently I have a baby bump. And I’m here to tell you that I do—I do have a baby bump. I am not pregnant, but I have had three kids and there is a bump. From now on ladies, I will have a bump. And it will be my baby bump. And let’s just all settle in and get used to it. It’s not going anywhere. I have a bump. Its name is Violet, Sam, Sera,” Garner told Ellen Degeneres.
Julia Roberts refuses to buy into punishing beauty standards, “By Hollywood standards, I guess I’ve already taken a big risk in not having had a face-lift,” she told You magazine earlier this year. “But I’ve told Lancome that I want to be an ageing model – so they have to keep me for at least five more years until I’m over 50.”
Kate Winslet says something fantastic about body image and healthy self-esteem on the regular. This year she was all about being OK being herself, and passing that onto her children: “I’ve just been very lucky that I’ve always been quite comfortable with who I am. Sometimes people ask, ‘What do you wish for your children?’ and all I say is, ‘I want them to be happy being them.”
Mindy Kaling has received more than her fair share of backhanded compliments and frankly in 2014 she’s had enough. “I’m also the recipient of a lot of backhanded compliments about it, where people are like, ‘It’s so nice that Mindy Kaling doesn’t feel she needs to subscribe to the ideals of beauty that other people do.’ And I’m like, I do subscribe. They’re like, ‘It’s so refreshing that Mindy feels comfortable to let herself go and be a fat sea monster!’ By the way, I run and work out. It takes a lot of effort to look like a normal/chubby woman,” Kaling told US talk show host Jimmy Kimmel.
Lena Dunham, who is forever having to justify the presence of her “non-conventional” body on our screens had this to say this year: “I think about my body as a tool to do the stuff I need to do, but not the be all and end all of my existence. Which sounds like I spent a week at a meditation retreat, but it’s genuinely how I feel,” Dunham said to People magazine.
Jennifer Love Hewitt on becoming a mother to a daughter: “If your priorities are right, the baby’s most important. You have to eat to feed to your baby. And I have a girl so I want her to see some day why her mom has good self-esteem and good body issues. It gets you down sometimes, I’m not going to lie. I’ve had days where I’m like, ‘Ugh, I wish this was easier.’ But it’s not, and that’s OK,” the actress told E! News.
