Robin Marchant/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
Ariana Grande has addressed her fans in a new TikTok, asking them to refrain from talking about the way she looks and comparing her current image to the way she looked in the past.
In a video posted with the caption "You’ve been talking about it for a decade or longer so I’d like to join in this time," Grande spoke for around three minutes in which she was open about her past struggles and requested kindness from her followers.
"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 speaking directly to the camera. “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.”
Grande mentioned the way fans have noted the change in her looks in recent years, arguing that people are inaccurate to say she was healthier in the past. "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.”
Last year Grande donated $1.5m to trans youth organizations and backed a campaign condemning the decision to overturn Roe v Wade. More recently she appeared on a new remix of The Weeknd's 2016 song "Die For You."
