It can be hard to feel confident about ourselves when every day, even when just browsing through Facebook to kill time before a lecture, we’re bombarded by photos of celebrities looking absolutely incredible. We’re used to seeing them after a team of makeup artists have worked their magic, lighting has specifically flattered their shape, and Photoshop has been used to nip and tuck their bodies into unhealthy proportions. In reality these celebrities see themselves every morning with puffy, sleep-deprived eyes, uncovered spots and hair to rival an 80’s Madonna.
They have the same issues with their appearance as we do, and yet they can’t go for a run or pop to the shop without ten cameras tracking their every move. They are at the mercy of the media, who only want to drag them down.
Female celebrities put up with constant body-shaming, endure hateful comments about their appearance whenever they put on a bikini, and even have to brush off the inevitable pregnancy rumours that fill tabloids whenever they put on a tiny bit of weight.
How do they cope?
By being totally body confident, that’s how.
They are the queens of body confidence. And we want you to be too. So who better to teach you than the celebrities themselves?
1. Remember that we all have insecurities
Just 25 years old, Taylor Swift is always topping the charts and was named Elle’s Woman of the Year for 2015. With the world at her fingertips, she still struggles with the same body issues we all face. Taylor thinks that realising we all feel that way is the first step to self acceptance.
‘’I definitely have body issues, but everybody does. When you come to the realisation that everybody does that – even the people that I consider flawless – then you can start to live with the way you are. I’ve read interviews with some of the most beautiful women who have insecurities. And you look at them and you’re like “How do you have? Name one thing wrong with yourself”, and they could name a handful.”
2.Talk to your friends
Lily Collins reminds us that we’re all in the same boat, and we can help support one another.
“I think it’s important to relate to one another about issues that you’re having, because the second you open up and someone else says, ‘Oh, me too. I feel the same way,’ then all of a sudden, you feel more at peace with yourself and you can feel more confident with who you are.”
After all, a problem shared is a problem halved.
3.Don’t underestimate the power of a smile
Drew Barrymore and Serena Williams think happiness equates to beauty, and you can show it off just by smiling.
Drew Barrymore tells us “I think happiness is what makes you pretty. Period. Happy people are beautiful. They become like a mirror and they reflect that happiness.”
And Serena Williams says “My smile is my favourite part of my body. I think a smile can make your whole body.”
So try to focus on being happy in other aspects of your life, and that will be reflected in your appearance.
4.Be kinder to yourself…
There’s no way we’d ever speak to our friends or sisters the way we speak to ourselves. Parks and Recreation actress Amy Poehler tells us to remember this when we’re being extra hard on ourselves.
“When you do talk about yourself or to yourself and you have that tape running in your head about yourself, try to picture you are talking to your own daughter or your younger sister, because you would tell your younger sister or your daughter that she is beautiful and you wouldn’t be lying, because she is. And so are you.”
5. …and be kinder to others
Emma Stone thinks that once we’ve started being kinder to ourselves, we can all be a lot kinder to one another.
“My great hope for us as young women is to start being kinder to ourselves so that we can be kinder to each other. To stop shaming ourselves and other people: ‘too fat, too skinny, too short, too tall, too anything.’ There’s a sense that we’re all ‘too’ something, and we’re all not enough. This is life. Our bodies change. Our minds change. Our hearts change.”
She also thinks life is too short for diets.
“You’re a human being, you live once and life is wonderful, so eat the damn red velvet cupcake.”
Someone get me a Flat White brownie, now!
6.Get a confidence boost from your clothes
Wearing clothes that make you feel great about yourself is one of the easiest ways to feel more confident. Find that outfit that makes you feel like you can take on the world and wear it every day if you must (you’ll be exuding so much confidence that nobody will dare to judge you for wearing the same thing three days in a row…)
Disney star Demi Lovato has learnt to embrace her figure and dress to accentuate it.
“I’m not a model — I have curves. I find things that accentuate my body, a woman’s body, and I always wear things that I feel comfortable in.”
7.Try to focus on the positives
After years of battling an eating disorder, Demi Lovato has become an ambassador for self love and positive body image amongst young girls. She advises us to remind ourselves of all the good things about our appearance.
“Instead of looking in the mirror and focusing on your flaws, look in the mirror and appreciate your best features…everyone has them.”
But if you just can’t ignore those things you perceive to be flaws (I guarantee you’re the only one who thinks of them that way) then it’s all about accepting that they’re part of who you are, and are part of what makes you so amazing.
“Your imperfections make you beautiful and they make you who you are so just be who you are and love yourself for who you are and just keep going.”
8.If you can’t love the way your body looks, love what it can do
Lena Dunham must be the pinnacle of body-confident celebrities, as she bares all (literally) on a weekly basis when her hit show Girls is on the TV. She reminds us that our bodies are not the most important thing about us, but rather are the things that allow us to do whatever it is we want to do.
“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.”
9.Forget the confines of beauty – it’s being different that makes us beautiful
As the host of the America’s Next Top Model, Tyra Banks knows a thing or two about beauty, so we should probably believe her when she says that beauty isn’t about looking a specific way, but it is whatever makes us unique that makes us beautiful.
“Girls of all kinds can be beautiful – from the thin, plus-sized, short, very tall, ebony to porcelain-skinned; the quirky, clumsy, shy outgoing and all in between. It’s not easy though because many people still put beauty into a confining narrow box…Think outside the box…Pledge that you will look in the mirror and find the unique beauty in you.”
10.And finally, just because she’s Beyoncé…
“Your self-worth is determined by you. You don’t have to depend on someone telling you who you are.”