Tracee Ellis Ross Talks Body Image: Sorry, I don’t have fake boobs, and I like where God placed mine.
DON’T sweat “perfection.”
One minute we’re supposed to be flat-chested, the next we’re supposed to have big butts. Who the f–k can keep up? It’s a different picture every day, and it teaches us to be so focused on achieving the standards other people set that we have no time left to put toward giving ourselves the life we want. We’re all heading in the same direction anyway. I always had a thin frame, but when you hit 40 and eat french fries three days in a row, it’s like, ‘What happened?’ There are things about my body that I don’t love, but I’m not trying to look perfect every day—I’m trying to look like me! Speaking of…
DO accept that your body shifts and changes.
My weight fluctuates. I have years where I wear a size 10, and years where I wear a size 4. On Girlfriends I kept complaining to the costumer, saying, ‘The cleaners are shrinking all my clothes.’ Finally she said, ‘I know that’s what you keep saying, but I want to be clear with you: Your body has changed, and we need to buy you bigger clothes.’ It took me out for a minute. In the context of our world, sizes 8 and 10 are teeny, but not for Hollywood. I had to ask myself, Do I want to be somebody who worries about what I’m eating? Or do I want to find a balance where I can be healthy and not consumed by that and maybe have to buy some larger pants? I bought new pants.
DON’T be rude.
People make comments about my breasts online all the time. Stuff like, ‘You should wear a bra.’ The weird part is, I am wearing a bra! Sorry, I don’t have fake boobs, and I like where God placed mine. I never got the ‘This Is Where Breasts Should Be’ memo. I go to the Korean spa—you’re around all these other naked women—and I think how different we all are is neat. You can’t standardize bodies.
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