Jennifer Lopez was asked to "lose a few pounds" to get rid of her curves
Jennifer Lopez is admired for her curves and she does not let go of an opportunity where she gets to flaunt them. However, it was not always the same. Talking to InStyle, the singer revealed that during the early days of her career, she was asked to lose weight and get rid of the curves.
“They didn’t bother me at all. But I got a lot of flak for it from people in the industry. They’d say, ‘You should lose a few pounds,’ or ‘You should do this or do that.’ It finally got to the point that I was like, ‘This is who I am. I’m shaped like this,’ ” Jennifer recalled.
Even though they were many who were trying to make her feel insecure about her body, it was Jennifer's family who helped her through. “My mom and my grandmother were the ones who drilled into me, ‘This is how we are, and this is what’s beautiful,’ ” she recalled.
“My dad loved my mom’s body — all the men in our family loved the women’s bodies. Being curvy or not being 6 feet tall was never a bad thing; it was actually something that was celebrated. And so, later on, when I brought that in front of the world, I wasn’t really trying to send a message. I was just being myself," she continued.
Not caring about what the rest of the world might think or say, Jennifer embraced her curves at a time when everyone “was very much focused on size 0 models." According to Jennifer, the image “was just so unattainable for most normal people, including me.” Nonetheless, she did not adhere to the beauty standards that was considered as normal and set her own trend.
“So many people have come up to me over the years — famous people, people I meet on the street, fans, everybody — and they say that very thing: ‘Thank you so much. I have the same type of body. I used to think I was fat, but now I feel beautiful,’ ” she said.
Jennifer added that she plans to make sure her daughter, Emme, has the same strength as her. “The one thing I really want to teach her is to love and respect herself first and to make sure she commands respect from others,” she said. “Social media — it’s fun and social, but at the end of the day you’re living in real time, where you have a core group of friends and family. I try to get her to focus on the things that matter: being a good person, friend, and daughter, being happy with herself, and doing the things she loves.”