Athiya Shetty on body shaming as teenager

Actress Athiya Shetty speaks up about her experience with fat shaming. She admitted that she used to be self-conscious about her body because she was mocked for being underweight as a teenager.

“I have fallen into the category of body shaming when I was young. People need to realize that body-shaming is not only associated with being overweight but also skinny and I have always believed that commenting on someone’s weight, appearance, anything that can make them less confident is something I don’t believe in.

You do not know what battle people are facing and you do not know what their insecurities are. I always believe if you do not have anything nice to say, just don’t say anything at all. Our words have such an impact on people and our everyday lives. It is important to be kind, how we feel reflects in our everyday activities,”

Athiya

She added,

“I do not really deal with them anymore. I used to when I was a child and when I was a teenager. I used to be very conscious of my body, I still am. But I am a lot better because I have confidence in myself today. People don’t know what body shaming is, they believe it concerns people who are overweight and that is not okay as well. People also body shame who are skinny and who might look a certain way. That is incorrect as well.”

According to Athiya, films, magazines and social media have also somehow promoted body shaming.

“I do feel that there are so many boys and girls, men and women who aspire to be a certain body type, aspire to be a certain way in terms of their appearance because of social media, because of magazine covers, because of movies, reality shows. There are so many false adjectives of beautiful and that’s something scary because there are so many people wanting to look the same way,”

she said.

Athiya emphasised the need to embrace one’s flaws. “Social media, it’s also starting from a young age which is sad as well as scary but I am seeing the change now. Magazine covers have done some covers which have been real, that help men and women understand that being real is beautiful as well. Being real also means that you come with flaws and that is okay.