Ariande Grande has an important message to send.
To fans. To followers. To pretty much everyone out there.
The actress and singer seemingly addressed ongoing body-shaming remarks late this past week by revisiting a note she shared amid the press tour for the first Wicked movie nearly one year ago.
“Resharing this from last year,” Grande wrote in a post on her Instagram Stories November 29, “as a loving reminder to all.”
Along with these words, the 32-year old posted numerous clips from a 2024 interview in which she explained how she deals with unsolicited commentary about her appearance.
“I’ve been a specimen in a Petri dish, really, since I was 16 or 17, you know?” Grande begins in the footage.
“So I have heard it all. I heard every version of it, of what’s wrong with me. And then you fix it, and then it’s wrong for different reasons — from what you’re wearing, to your body, to your face, to your everything.”
The Wicked: For Good superstar went on to say that she feels as though saying things about other people’s bodies is normalized in our culture… despite the fact that it can cause real harm.
“There’s a comfortability that we shouldn’t have at all — commenting on other’s looks, [their] appearance, what [we] think is going on behind the scenes or [their] health … It’s like, that is something that is uncomfortable and horrible, no matter where it’s happening, no matter the scale that it’s happening on,” she said in this interview.
Later in the interview, the artist — who has often had to blast body-shamers — said she thinks the phenomenon is “dangerous,” while also stating that she feels “lucky” to have a strong support system behind her amid her rise to stardom.
“I think that I’m really lucky to have the support system that I have, and to just know and trust that I’m beautiful, you know?” Grande said.
“But I do know what the pressure of that noise feels like. It’s been a resident in my life since I was 17. And I just don’t invite it in anymore. It’s not welcome … I just don’t invite it in anymore … I have work to do. I have a life to live. I have friends to love on. I have so much love.”
Grande may be done with music forever. Or at least a VERY long time.
She recently admitted that dealing with the pressures that come with her status has presented challenges for her in the past.
“Until quite recently, it was really hard for me to navigate,” Ariana told The New York Times in an interview published Nov. 5. “And I think it stripped a lot of joy out of this for me.”
In April 2023, meanwhile, Grande posted a rare, three-minute confessional on TikTok in which she addressed comments about her body.
“There are many different ways to look healthy and beautiful. And personally, for me, the body that you’ve been comparing my current body to was the unhealthiest version of my body,” she said back then.
“I was on a lot of antidepressants and drinking on them and eating poorly and at the lowest point of my life when I looked the way you consider my healthy, but that, in fact, wasn’t my healthy…
“The second thing is you never know what someone is going through, so even if you’re coming from a loving place or a caring place, that person probably is working on it or has a support system that they’re working on it with. You never know, so be gentle with each other and yourselves.”