Jennifer Aniston rarely responds to what the tabloids say about her (no, for the millionth time, she’s not pregnant). People have been commenting on her body and speculating about her love life for decades, and finally she’s had enough. Aniston calls out the paparazzi (and the people who follow celebrity news) in a personal essay for The Huffington Post. When you see things from her perspective, you realize how all this body shaming really affects someone:
I resent being made to feel ‘less than’ because my body is changing and/or I had a burger for lunch and was photographed from a weird angle and therefore deemed one of two things: “pregnant” or “fat.” Not to mention the painful awkwardness that comes with being congratulated by friends, coworkers, and strangers alike on one’s fictional pregnancy (often a dozen times in a single day).
The essay isn’t just about Aniston. She has a rallying cry to help change things that leaves us saying, “Yas, Jen! Shout it from the rooftops!”
Here’s where I come out on this topic: We are complete with or without a mate, with or without a child. We get to decide for ourselves what is beautiful when it comes to our bodies. That decision is ours and ours alone. Let’s make that decision for ourselves and for the young women in this world who look to us as examples. Let’s make that decision consciously, outside of the tabloid noise. We don’t need to be married or mothers to be complete. We get to determine our own ‘happily ever after’ for ourselves.
