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Celebrities getting bullied online for their looks is nothing new. From Kate Winslet to Lizzo, Kylie Jenner, and Billie Eilish, the list is endless. Trolls online can sometimes get too harsh and that can border on bullying.
Many celebrities get criticized for their looks by the general public due to the beauty standards set by Hollywood. Several others have expressed how they struggle to maintain that beauty standard and yet get bullied online due to every aspect of their body. Since celebrities are always in front of camera, their chances of getting scrutinized for small aspects are even higher.
Disclaimer: This article mentions instances of cyber bullying, reader discretion is advised.
Billie Eilish, Selena Gomez, Kate Winslet, and 8 other celebs who were brutally bullied for their looks
1) Lili Reinhart
Lili Reinhart has been body-shamed and bullied multiple times during her career. She even got bullied after filming a scene in a lingerie set for Riverdale. For the unversed, in a particular episode, the actress did a serpent dance at the Whyte Wyrm, and many started comparing her body to the model who wore the set as well. Some netizens even put both pictures side-by-side in a “who is hotter” poll, in which Lili Reinhart was getting tagged incessantly.
However, this was not the first time the Chemical Hearts actress was body shamed and bullied. The internet once started speculating that she was pregnant after a picture of her in a bikini with then-boyfriend Cole Sprouse circulated around the internet.
Lili weighed in on this through her social media, stating:
"It’s unfortunate that one unflattering photo of my stomach circulating the internet causes hundreds of people to think that I’m pregnant. Nope. Not pregnant.”
She continued talking about being bullied for her looks on her Instagram:
“My body is something that I will NEVER apologize for. My body will constantly go through change. And so will yours. And that’s fine. So let’s not put so much time and effort into caring about a stranger’s figure.”
The Look Both Ways actress also once posted a series of Instagram stories where she talked about how Hollywood gave her intense body image issues:
“I didn’t think being in this industry, that is so obsessed with womens’ [sic] bodies and weights, could ever mess with my own body acceptance and positivity … but it has. I wish I hadn’t grown up in a time where the media worshipped only one size of women.”
She ended her series of stories by asking people to normalize women’s bodies and championing body positivity, concluding:
“Let’s continue to talk about it. Normalize it. Empathize with others. Show compassion and kindness”
2) Billie Eilish
Billie Eilish is a very popular musician, however, the Happier Than Ever singer underwent a wave of criticism and scrutiny about her body after a picture of her wearing form-fitting clothes surfaced online in 2020. Billie later told Vanity Fair how the people closest to her had concerns about how the picture getting trolled on the internet would do damage to her mind due to her past body image issues and an eating disorder:
“I think that the people around me were more worried about it than I was, because the reason I used to cut myself was because of my body. To be quite honest with you, I only started wearing baggy clothes because of my body.”
Even in her songs, the Lovely singer has regularly clapped back at the haters and body shamers. In one of her songs, OverHeated, she straight up says against being bullied for her looks:
“All these other inanimate b*tches / It's none of my business / But don't you get sick of / Posin' for pictures with that plastic body? Man”
She later revealed to Vanity Fair that she used to harm herself due to her body image issues, adding that she preferred wearing baggy clothes due to her insecurities. Since then, the Bad Guy singer has slowly started to overcome her issues and has appeared in a Vogue cover and on the Met Gala red carpet in flattering and more form-fitting dresses. The 21-year-old uses her Instagram to educate people about body positivity and is doing great as a role model.
3) Kylie Jenner
One would think that a beauty mogul like Kylie Jenner does not have to be bullied and face body shaming, but they would be wrong. The Keeping up With The Kardashians star has been in the spotlight ever since her teenage years, and during that time, she was bullied for her looks. Not only that, these criticisms even transcended her adult life as she still gets bullied for her lip fillers that she got to escape from her childhood insecurity steaming from such criticisms.
Kylie Jenner even started doubting whether she was built for a celebrity life. She opened up on a 2016 episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians in which she told elder sister Kim Kardashian that she felt like she was not meant for this life:
“I feel like I've had anxiety for too long. I feel too much, I care too much, I read too much. Some people are born for this life and some people aren’t. I just know I’m not supposed to be famous.” (via Buzzfeed)
In 2020, many started posting pictures of Kylie before her pregnancy, commenting that she looked much thinner in her pre-pregnancy photos. This would be demoralizing for anyone, but the beauty mogul retorted to being bullied by saying:
"I birthed a baby.”
She had previously opened up about her struggles with pregnancy in a YouTube video uploaded to her channel, saying:
"After Stormi, people think that I bounced back super fast, which I guess I did, and that I'm just, 'Oh, everything's so perfect,' and people can get the wrong idea on Instagram sometimes. Especially at such a young age, your body to go through such a change—and it is physically, mentally, and emotionally a challenge. It's also a beautiful thing. It was such a great pregnancy and birth. I'm so happy, I would've done the same thing over again."
4) Lana Del Rey
Lana Del Rey has been ruling a generation of Tumblr and Pinterest armies with an iron fist for decades. While the singer put on considerable weight during the lockdown, many bullied her and left body-shaming comments left and right.
However, many came out in support of Lana Del Ray too, saying how women’s body changes as they grow old. The Radio singer is now 37 years old, nearing her 40s. Many fans came out in support to say that expecting her to look anything like her teenage years is an unrealistic expectation that should be kept in check. Glamour Magazine came out in support of Lana Del Ray as author Chloe Laws wrote:
“As humans grow, so do our bodies. That is a fact. But we expect women, especially those in the public eye, to look the same at 18 as at 30. They are expected to be immune from the realities of life (illness, age, childbirth), and miraculously stay frozen in time."
The problem that many have pointed out is that although Lana Del Ray is still immensely popular on social media platforms, the clips that circulate even with her new songs are of a younger age. These clips create a false narrative and a beauty standard in people’s minds that gets interrupted when reality interjects. As Glamour magazine rightly put out:
“Lana Del Rey doesn't owe you thinness, so let's stop glorifying her old body.”
5) Selena Gomez
Selena Gomez recently got brutally bullied after her latest appearance at the Golden Globes in January 2023 showed her to put on some weight. The 30-year-old popstar/actor/producer/beauty entrepreneur suffers from a chronic illness called Lupus. It is a disease in which the immune system of someone’s body attacks their own tissues and organs, causing inflammation and affecting joints, skin, kidneys, blood cells, brain, heart, and lungs.
So, when the Back To You singer started getting bullied for gaining weight, she did not stop and let the haters go on. She then went on TikTok to say how her Lupus medication makes her gain tons of weight:
“When I’m taking it, I tend to hold a lot of water weight, and that happens very normally. When I’m off of it, I tend to kind of lose weight.”
Selena continued emotionally:
“My medications are important and I believe they are what helps me. Not a model, never will be,”
Selena Gomez being bullied and body shamed is nothing new. In fact, the Kill 'Em With Kindness singer has been dealing with body shaming comments and getting bullied for her weight since 2018 when she posted a picture of herself in her bikini. When many took to social media to call her fat, she retorted back in an Instagram post, writing:
"The beauty myth- an obsession with physical perfection that traps modern woman in an endless cycle of hopelessness, self consciousness, and self-hatred as she tries to fulfil society’s impossible definition of flawless beauty. I chose to take care of myself because I want to, not to prove anything to anyone."
6) Adele
Adele is one of the most powerful singers of all time. Her songs Rolling in the Deep and Skyfall took the music industry by storm and ended up getting her the most coveted Academy Award. However, Adele has been heavily bullied for her plus-size figure; she got bullied so badly that she even disappeared from the public eye for five years. Talking to British Vogue, she said:
"People have been talking about my body for 12 years. They used to talk about it before I lost weight. But yeah, whatever, I don’t care.”
In 2020, a picture of Adele went viral as her drastic weight loss became the talk of the town. While many fans had negative reactions to it, several others, on the other hand, even started claiming that they helped the singer to achieve such weight loss.
While talking to Oprah in an interview, she opened up about how none of this really surprised her as the attention to her physical appearance has always been present. Additionally on CBS primetime special One Night Only, she stated:
"I [wasn't] shocked or even fazed by it — my body has been objectified my entire career," she shared. "Am I too big or am I too small, am I hot or not or whatever — I never looked up to anyone because of their body."
7) Lizzo
Lizzo is a plus-size icon for many. The talented About Damn Time singer has some of the most iconic on-stage performances and songs. But for many, her figure overshadowed her talents. Her body has sparked discussions among fatphobic people who have bullied her for years.
The situation got heated when Donda rapper Kanye West commented on Lizzo’s body in an interview with Fox News's Tucker Carlson and bullied her, saying it was “demonic”:
“When Lizzo loses 10 pounds and announces it, the bots … on Instagram, they attack her for losing weight, because the media wants to put out a perception that being overweight is the new goal when it’s actually unhealthy. It’s demonic.”
Comedian Aries Spears, in The Art of Dialogue, degraded Lizzo’s body and viciously bullied her, saying:
“I can’t get past the fact that she looks like the s*it emoji.”
This would be enough to bring down the morale of anyone. However, Lizzo being the queen she is, commented during one of her concerts:
“I feel like everybody in America got my motherf*cking name in their motherf*cking mouth for no motherf*cking reason. I’m minding my fat Black beautiful business.”
8) Kate Winslet
In 2022, nearly 45 years after the massive success of Titanic, Kate Winslet opened up about how she had to face body shaming and get bullied after the movie was released. It has long been debated whether Jack and Rose’s characters both could have fit on the floating door and if the former would have survived.
However, many did not understand that it was the director's decision, and took to body shame Kate Winslet and bullied her for being fat. Many believed it was the body weight of the actress that led to Jack not having space on that floating door. Kate Winslet said in an interview with Happy, Sad, and Confused Podcast:
“Apparently I was too fat,”
She continued by saying:
“Why were they so mean to me? They were so mean. I wasn’t even fucking fat.”
She continued and opened up about how she found out that being bullied like this was “borderline abusive” and continued:
“I would have said to journalists, I would have responded, I would have said, ‘Don’t you dare treat me like this. I’m a young woman, my body is changing, I’m figuring it out, I’m deeply insecure, I’m terrified, don’t make this any harder than it already is.’ That’s bullying, you know, and actually borderline abusive, I would say.”
Apparently, this was not the first time she was bullied for her body. In her interview with The Sunday Times, she told how she had to settle for “fat girl” parts in her acting school, and her agent would often ask her one thing again and again, which was: “How’s [her] weight?”
Winslet has come a long way since then, with an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, three BAFTA Awards, and five Golden Globe Awards in her bag.
9) Demi Lovato
Heart Attack singer Demi Lovato has struggled with an eating disorder in the past and is still recovering from it. So, when the media houses brutally body-shamed and bullied her, saying she had a “fuller figure,” Demi did not shy away from expressing her opinion. In an Instagram story, she posted a screenshot of the article saying:
“I AM MORE THAN MY WEIGHT.”
Lovato went on to say:
“Unlike the past, I’m not triggered, I’m not upset that someone wrote a headline about my ‘fuller figure.’ I’m angry that people think it’s okay to write headlines about people’s body shapes. Especially a woman who has been so open about being in recovery from an eating disorder. I’m not upset for myself but for anyone easily influenced by the diet culture.”
The author of the article then reached out to Demi Lovato to ask for an apology, and in good spirits, she thanked him for taking responsibility.
The Made In The USA singer told everyone on Twitter in 2018 that she had stopped dieting and food-shaming herself. She later told People that she still deals with being bullied and body shaming now, but she feels a lot freer nowadays due to her choice of being proud of her body.
The 20-year-old singer is slowly starting to learn how to love herself and not torment her body with incessant diets, and fans hope Demi Lovato will soon be in a much happier place.
10) Lady Gaga
Lady Gaga has always had to face criticism and has gotten bullied time and again, regarding her fashion choices and her body. The Shallow singer put on a powerhouse performance at the SuperBowl in 2017, but many chose to focus on her body and bully her for that over her jam-packed performance.
The moment the John Wayne singer was body shamed for was when she came on stage to perform Bad Romance in a crop top, and many on Twitter started saying she should have tucked her belly better.
Lady Gaga did not take being bullied lightly as she spoke out on Instagram, saying how she is proud of her body:
“I heard my body is a topic of conversation, so I wanted to say, I’m proud of my body and you should be proud of yours too,”
Gaga has previously spoken out about body shamers and being bullied and revealed that she was recovering from an eating disorder in 2012. She also disclosed how her body image issues caused her to develop anorexia at the age of 15.
11) Sydney Sweeney
Sydney Sweeney rose to fame with HBO's Euphoria. However, the actress recently opened up about how she was bullied and body-shamed throughout her career. She got bullied so badly in so many instances that it almost made her quit her dream of being an actor. She was deemed either too fat or too skinny, and nothing she was doing could appease the critical mass.
In an interview with GQ Hype, she opened up and said that one casting director told her she had no future in the industry. she revealed that even her friend’s mother bullied her for her stretch marks, saying no boy would ever love her for the marks on her body.
The Voyeurs actress was deemed a threat even after losing a few pounds and becoming conventionally "thin." When she appeared in The 2022 MTV Movie Awards wearing a low-rise Miu Miu skirt and a cropped collar buttoned shirt, she was heavily bullied by many for apparently setting up an unachievable example for her fans.
Yahoo Entertainment published an article saying:
"Why Sydney Sweeney’s micromini outfit feels like a threat to body positivity: 'So coveted yet unachievable'"
One netizen commented on Twitter:
"Watch body positivity go down the drain once the low-rise fashion takes over again,"
However, being bullied did not deter Sydney Sweeney from being a champion of body positivity. She now believes that her body does a lot for her and she is not going to get another one, so she is slowly learning to love her body. She hopes to inspire women all around the world who get bullied for their bodies in daily life.
All of the said celebrities have done a fantastic job championing body positivity for their audience. One can only hope that, slowly, with time, celebrities won’t be bullied for their looks and people will instead focus on their work.
