Gen Z Body Positivity: 5 Celebs Who Promote Self-Love and Body Positivity

After growing up and being taught the narrative, we should all look a certain way, from the gap between our thighs to the shape of our bodies. Only ever seeing the ‘highlights’ of people’s lives online, and the edited photos at the best angles we compare our worst to. This unrealistic portrayal of beauty has damaged our perception of ourselves and how we think we ‘need’ to look in order to be happy.

Over the past few years, celebrities, and the icons we look up to have started to celebrate body positivity and accept their own bodies, ignoring what society tells us we should look like as women. And we are here for it!

There are no summer body rules, or bikini body goals, we all deserve to feel good in our own bodies and spread self-love. Make this the year you choose to embrace your body.

Lili Reinhart

Lili is no stranger to sharing her journey of accepting her own body.

She often opens up about how the glamorous industry has forever tainted her opinions of herself and driven her to feel insecure and have signs of body dysmorphia. Things she never experienced before, entering the industry as a confident young woman, her self-esteem was torn away bit by bit.

The 25-year-old star uses her platform to show young girls they are not alone, she often speaks about her own obsessive body image thoughts and learning to look at your body with love rather than criticism.

As a true role model, she even attended the Glamour Summit giving a refreshing speech where she expressed “We aren’t born with these insecurities; we are told to be insecure”. Her powerful words both on and offline encourage us it’s okay to be okay with our bodies, we don’t need to heavily criticize and pull ourselves apart for not portraying the ‘ideal’.

Ashley Graham

As one of the first ‘plus size’ models to break into the fashion industry, Ashley continues to use her voice to encourage self-love.

The Queen of body positivity is always unapologetically herself, loving and embracing every ‘flaw’ the media tries to portray. Ashley uses her platform to share real raw images, showing us women it’s okay to be who you are. You don’t need to edit out your cellulite or smooth your skin or suck in for a bikini pic.

She destroys the narrative the media tells us. Consistently sharing unedited photos on the beach and close-ups of her cellulite, she celebrates women declaring nothing but self-love and empowerment in her heartfelt captions.

She encourages others and shows young women it’s okay to embrace their natural bodies.

Demi Lovato

The Disney channel icon we all grew up watching is now a true advocate for women. Demi has always been so open online to inspire young women. She has often discussed her own battles with body image and how it led her down a dark path of an eating disorder.

She continues to speak up about how damaging these stereotypes are. The now confident bursting singer is known for her ‘no f*cks given’ approach to body positivity and promoting a healthy mindset. She even shared an image of her unedited legs in a bikini bashing the disturbing stereotype of thigh gaps.

Hillary Duff

The Lizzie Maguire legend has been dealing with the media and its cruel concept of body image for longer than we can imagine.

Hillary still chooses to never let the media control her body image, she advocates for women to not only accept their natural bodies but appreciate and love them. She even once shared a pap pick taken to shame her post-pregnancy body. She expresses that she has ‘flaws’ and she is not going to be made to feel bad about that.

In a post, she dedicates to all young girls, women, and mothers out there she shares an important message, “let’s be proud of what we've got and stop wasting precious time in the day wishing we were different, better, and unflawed.” As a healthy woman entering her 30s, she destroys the media’s control over her and encourages women to do the same.

Zendaya

The fashion icon, film star, and singer has always been aware of her platform as she continuously shares encouraging and downright normal messages with her fans, from laughing at her own pap photos to warning Euphoria fans of the show’s dark nature.

She is a responsible role model to all young women out there. As one that has always been real and worked with pride to ensure she never contributes to unrealistic beauty standards or the cruel body image narrative.

The self-love Queen shares images from the catwalk to a messy bun and glasses, showcasing reality.

Zendaya even called out a magazine for editing her hips when she was only 19, she shared the real photo to share with her fans “These are the things that make women self-conscious, that create the unrealistic ideals of beauty that we have. Anyone who knows who I am knows I stand for honest and pure self-love”.