Ariana Grande addresses fans’ “concerns” about her body: “Healthy can look different”

12 April, 2023

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Ariana Grande has opened up about fans’ “concerns” about her body, urging them to be kinder to others.

The singer took to TikTok on Tuesday (April 11) to address long-running discussions about her appearance. “I just wanted to address your concerns about my body and talk a little bit about what it means to be a person with a body and to be seen and to be paid such close attention to,” she said as subtitles in the video read. “You’ve been talking about it for a decade or longer so I’d like to join in this time.”

“I think we could be, I think we should be gentler and less comfortable commenting on people’s bodies, no matter what. If you think you’re saying something good or well-intentioned, whatever it is, healthy, unhealthy, big, small, this, that, sexy, nonsense – we just should really work towards not doing that as much.”

“There are ways to compliment someone or to ignore something that you see that you don’t like, that I think we should help each other work towards,” she said. “We should aim toward being safer, and keeping each other safer.”

Grande also addressed opened up about “the unhealthiest” version of her body that fans had been drawing comparisons to: “I know personally, for me, the body that you’ve been comparing my current body to was the unhealthiest version of my body. I was on a lot of antidepressants and drinking on them and eating poorly. And at the lowest point of my life when I looked the way you consider my ‘healthy,’ that in fact wasn’t my healthy.”

She added, “I know I shouldn’t have to explain that. But I do feel like maybe having an openness and some sort of vulnerability here, something good might come from it. Healthy can look different.”

“You never know what someone is going through,” Grande added. “So even if you are coming from a loving place and a caring place, that person probably is working on it or has a support system that they are working on it with. You never know. Be gentle with each other and with yourselves.”

The singer ended the video by telling her fans that they’re all beautiful in their own ways: “I think you’re beautiful. No matter what you’re going through. No matter what weight, no matter how you like to do your makeup these days, no matter what cosmetic procedures you’ve had or not or anything.”

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Grande has long been vocal about mental health, saying in 2018 that she felt “guilty” for experiencing anxiety. “It’s just so crazy how powerful it is. You have ups and downs and sometimes you’ll go weeks at a time where you will be crushing it and there will be no anxiety… and then something will happen that can trigger it and then you have a couple of down days.”

In 2021, she encouraged her fans to be open about their struggles with mental health, writing on social media: “Here’s to ending the stigma around mental health and normalizing asking for help. Healing isn’t linear, fun, quick or at all easy but we are here and we’ve got to commit to making this time as healthy, peaceful and beautiful as possible. the work is so hard but we are capable and worth it. sending so much love and strength.”

Ariana Grande is currently filming a two-installment film adaptation of the Broadway musical Wicked, for which she was cast as Glinda the Good Witch in 2021. In January, she also made a surprise appearance on RuPaul’s Drag Race while dressed as former Drag Race star Ornacia.

Musically, she most recently featured on a new remix of The Weeknd’s 2016 song ‘Die For You’ in February. It marks the pair’s fourth collaboration overall.