Honest Stories: Celebrities Who Pushed Back Against Unrealistic Body Ideals

Millie Bobby Brown has been in the spotlight since gaining international fame for Stranger Things, which inevitably means she has been picked apart for her appearance from time to time. 

In December 2022, Brown uploaded two selfies to her Instagram Stories — one with a filter that made her eyelashes longer and her skin smoother, and another unedited and without any filters — to make a point. 

Earlier that year, she told Allure that it was “really hard to be hated on” as a child actor when she did not even know herself well. 

In March 2025, Brown’s red-carpet appearances for her Netflix movie The Electric State sparked unsavory comments about her appearance. Many claimed she looked much older than her age, while others speculated she had cosmetic enhancements done to her face. 

Brown ripped into the critics in an Instagram post, naming and shaming those who wrote negatively about her physical features, including one who called her look a “mommy makeover.” 

“I started in this industry when I was 10 years old,” Brown wrote in the caption. “I grew up in front of the world, and for some reason, people can’t seem to grow with me. Instead, they act like I’m supposed to stay frozen in time, as I should still look the way I did on Stranger Things Season 1. And because I don’t, I’m now a target.” 

“This isn’t journalism, this is bullying,” she added.

In November 2025, Brown faced a fresh wave of criticism over her anatomy after appearing at a Stranger Things season 5 FYC event in a revealing black mesh gown. Some netizens said her [private parts] looked “saggy” and “deflated” at the event.

Around that time, Brown told British Vogue that she was “crying every day” because of the discourse around her appearance, and it made her “depressed” for several days. 

“I respect journalism. I love reading articles on my favorite people and hearing what they’re up to,” Brown said. “I understand that there’s paparazzi, even though it’s invasive, even though it feels like s*** to me – I know that’s your job.” 

“But don’t, in your headline, slam me at the get-go. It is so wrong, and it is bullying, especially to young girls who are new to this industry and are already questioning everything about it.”

@strathinmillsbb thanks for that mills ♥️#milliebobbybrown #florencebymills #millieons #strangerthings #realskin ♬ igloo by karen o - coward

Florence Pugh has repeatedly spoken out against the rigid beauty standards imposed on actresses in Hollywood and has actively challenged these norms by refusing to comply. 

In a 2022 interview with The Telegraph, Pugh said that a studio boss asked her to lose weight for a lead role in a TV show that did not make it past the pilot stage.

“All the things that they were trying to change about me – whether it was my weight, my look, the shape of my face, the shape of my eyebrows – that was so not what I wanted to do, or the industry I wanted to work in,” she explained. 

In a 2023 conversation with Vogue, Pugh claimed that she had put her foot down early on in her career about not changing her appearance.

“I’m never losing weight to look fantastic for a role,” she said. “It’s more like, how would this character have lived? What would she be eating?”

This came months after she was dragged on social media for her sheer pink Valentino dress at the label’s Fall/Winter 2022-2023 fashion show in Rome. 

The Black Widow actress called out the critics in the Vogue interview: “What’s worrying is just how vulgar some of you men can be. So many of you wanted to aggressively let me know how disappointed you were by my ‘tiny t*ts,’ or how I should be embarrassed by being so ‘flat-chested.’”

The same year, she explained to Elle U.K. that she was comfortable speaking about her body: “I speak the way I do about my body because I’m not trying to hide the cellulite on my thigh or the squidge in between my arm and my b**b: I would much rather lay it all out.”

In 2024, she told The Times that it was “exhausting for a young woman to just be in this industry.” 

She recalled the “godawful headlines” she saw about Keira Knightley’s body when the Atonement star was an upcoming actress, and that was when she decided not to “abide by those rules.”

@syxor_ I love her sm #foryou #foryoupage #foryourpage #fypシ゚viral #florencepugh #florence #cookingwithflo #bodyimage ♬ originalljud - ⧗ Florence ⧗

Fitness influencer Emily Skye, who has over 2.5 million Instagram followers, had her first child, Mia, in December 2018. 

After Mia’s birth, Skye set an example by sharing how her body looked and her realistic postpartum fitness journey as she returned to the gym.

“For me, this whole ‘snap back’ idea is unrealistic — it’s taking me hard work, consistency, and patience,” Skye wrote. I’ve got a saggy belly, extra body fat, cellulite, stretch marks & I’ve lost a lot of muscle, but my abs are still under there when I flex my b*tt off, haha!”

She did the same after the birth of her son, Izaac, in 2020. This time, she called out those who criticized her appearance after Izaac’s birth.

“RIP fit body,”⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣ “Yuck,” ⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣“Your body is ruined⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣,” “So much cellulite!”⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣ — these were some of the comments Skye claimed she received online. 

“It makes me sad when I hear people say terrible things about the way they look,” she said. “Love for yourself and your body isn’t easy, and it takes time to learn how to do it, but I believe it’s SO important.”
 
“Thank you, nasty people. Instead of bringing me down, you’ve only made me stronger, more determined, and more resilient.”

She posted a before-and-after video after regaining her previous level of fitness at the gym, with the caption: “To the A-holes who said I couldn’t do it, and that my body was ruined after having babies: It took time, but I DID IT.”

In April 2023, Colombian singer and songwriter Karol G called out GQ Magazine for publishing a Photoshopped cover of her. 

“My face doesn't look like that, my body doesn't look like that, and I feel very happy and comfortable with how I naturally look,” she wrote. 

“I appreciate the magazine's opportunity because I was very happy when they confirmed I would be on it, but despite making it clear that I was unhappy with the amount of editing, they did nothing about it, as if I needed all those changes to look good.”

“It's disrespectful to all the women who wake up every day wanting to feel comfortable in their own skin despite societal stereotypes,” she continued. 

This wasn’t the first time the musician spoke up against unrealistic beauty standards. 

In February 2023, she responded to a fan who criticized a photo in which her tummy was exposed: “It’s not about whether or not my body favors me, because well, that’s my body and that’s how it is.”

“Never let comments like these distort how beautiful you look…everybody is different…everyone is beautiful just the way they are.”

In a 2018 conversation with Billboard’s Latin Connection, Karol G said that she decided to take off her hair extensions and was content with her appearance: “Honestly, maybe I’m not as skinny as I’ve been at some point in my life, but I like how I look!”

Three years before Vogue Italia named her as one of the world’s top plus-size supermodels, Tess Holliday started the #effyourbeautystandards movement on Instagram. 

Several years before that, she was rejected at a casting call for plus-size models in Atlanta, where she was told she would be "lucky" to do print advertising or catalog work.

In March 2014, Holliday became the first model over size 18 to work with Monif Clarke's clothing line. Next, she worked with Torrid and H&M and did a photoshoot with Marie Claire UK. 

After she gained her fame, Holliday used her platform to advocate for body positivity. 

“When young girls Google the term model, the first women that pop up are Gigi [Hadid] and Kendall [Jenner]. I think it’s really important for all young girls to see themselves represented in fashion so they don’t feel alone in the world.”

In August 2015, Holliday demanded a boycott of Project Harpoon, a platform that shared Photoshopped images of her and other public figures, such as Rebel Wilson and Melissa McCarthy, making them appear slimmer.

In September 2015, she called out Victoria's Secret for their limited plus-size clothing options.

“I don’t understand why it’s not okay to be plus-size,” Holliday told The Cut in 2016. “I don’t know why people hate that phrase.” 

After turning 40 in July 2025, Holliday posted a TikTok video urging her followers not to be worried about aging. 

“It is okay to age,” she said. “Forty sounds so scary, but I haven’t had any trepidation about turning forty. Pointing to her facial features, she added, “I have my first little wrinkles right here when I smile. I have a little age spot here, sun spot. Your skin ages. I have, you know, little bumps and divots and all of the things.”

Two months later, she told Teen Vogue’s Brittney McNamara at the outlet’s annual summit that people pressured her online to use semaglutide injections to lose weight. She had “no excuse” not to amid the “age of Oz*mpic,” Holliday allegedly was told multiple times. 

“I'm like, that is not how it works,” she responded to the comments. “Also, like, can I live? Let me just live.”

In February 2026, the model and activist posted a TikTok video in a neon-green bikini, revealing she had shed some weight. “POV: you lost weight but never made it your personality,” she wrote over the clip.

“Imagine calling self-acceptance toxic. Couldn’t be me,” Holliday added in the caption. “We brought back #effyourbeautystandards because this message still matters. 13 years after I created the movement, we still need the reminder. Maybe now more than ever.”  

@tessholliday 🥹 #40 #effyourbeautystandards ♬ original sound - Tess H🍒lliday

Once a teen heartthrob for playing Troy Bolton in the High School Musical series, Zac Efron segued into drama, comedy, and action in his adulthood. In 2017, he starred in Baywatch, the film version of the popular television series of the same name, alongside Dwayne Johnson.

Directed by Seth Gordon, the movie required him to achieve a ripped physique with an eight-pack and almost no body fat. Later, when his appearance changed, Efron received comments criticizing him for gaining weight. Some even called it a “dad bod.”

In reality, the Baywatch look would be nearly impossible to maintain, Efron revealed in a 2022 interview with Men’s Health. He also shared that he used a powerful furosemide diuretic medication to achieve that physique. 

“That Baywatch look, I don’t know if that’s really attainable. There’s just too little water in the skin. Like, it’s fake; it looks CGI’d.” Efron said. “And that required Lasix, powerful diuretics, to achieve. So I don’t need to do that. I much prefer to have an extra, you know, 2-3% body fat.”

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration warns that Lasix, if given in excessive amounts, can lead to a “profound diuresis with water and electrolyte depletion.”

On top of using Lasix, he overtrained and underslept, and developed mental health issues while preparing for the role. 

“I started to develop insomnia, and I fell into a pretty bad depression, for a long time,” Efron admitted. “Something about that experience burned me out. I had a really hard time recentering.”

Medical professionals chalked a lot of the issues up to taking “too many diuretics.”

Efron said that his decision to open stemmed from letting people know — those who were trying to obtain his Baywatch body — how devastating the process was and the ill effects it had on his health. 

In 2021, when netizens noticed the difference in Efron’s face in an Earth Day special clip on Bill Nye’s show, many, including his own mother, speculated that he had undergone cosmetic surgery. 

Efron came clean with the truth in a Men’s Health interview that his face changed after a brutal accident in which he fell in his house while running around in socks, hit his chin against the granite corner of a fountain, and lost consciousness.

When he woke up, he found his chin bone had come loose. During the recovery, the muscles on the inside of his face and jaw grew bigger, Efron claimed: “The masseters just grew. They just got really, really big.”

@entertainmenttonight Zac Efron gets real about the plastic surgery rumors while promoting his new movie, The Greatest Beer Run Ever on Apple TV+ #zacefron #highschoolmusical #fypツ ♬ original sound - Entertainment Tonight