Drew Barrymore gets super-honest about her body image, and it’s so refreshing
So many women are faced with the impossible pressure to lose all their baby weight as soon as they give birth, to “go back to normal” as they say (and they shouldn’t). Women’s bodies are often celebrated for “bouncing back,” but not so much for the incredible experience they go through when making a human baby and giving birth to it. Feeling that very same, immense pressure to trim all that baby weight off, Drew Barrymore got super-real with Glamour about her post-baby body image. And whether you’re a mom or not, what she said is so honest and deeply relatable.
Drew, our collective BFF and super down-to-earth actress, businesswoman and mother of two, had a lot of really brilliant insights on her experience with losing that weight and the temptation to feel gross about yourself when you really shouldn’t. She admitted, “After making two babies, holy cow, does your body do some crazy stuff! It’s hard to stay positive and love yourself. You feel like a kangaroo with a giant pouch; everything’s saggy and weird. But you think about how beautiful it is that you’re able to make children.”
Drew is so right. It’s unfair just how harshly our bodies are scrutinized, and it’s SO easy to fall into the trap of disliking yourself and how you look based on outside expectations and unreasonable beauty standards.
But we all need to remember to think beyond those idealized notions of how our bodies should look—and be grateful for what our bodies can do. “When I lose sight of that, I exercise, read Dr. Seuss’s Oh, the Places You’ll Go!. and spend time with my kids,” said Drew. “Then I start to see things that are bigger than myself.”
In fact, Drew waited to lose her baby weight and pushed back on any outside pressure to look “perfect.” “It took nine months to build,” she said of her pregnancy body. “It should take nine months to get off.”
Also this was perfect: “I wanted fettuccini alfredo. I didn’t want a barbell.”
Drew Barrymore’s message is such a powerful one we should all take to heart. Because a lot of us, regardless of our size, or our situation, feel negatively about our weight, our bodies, and how we look. The pressure to look a certain way is very real, but it’s important to know that ALL bodies are beautiful and capable of doing so many awesome things. Thanks, Drew, for the reminder and for always speaking the truth.
Image via