Photo: Arturo Holmes/Getty Images
Barbie Ferreira never set out to be a body-positivity activist. In an interview with Bustle published on Wednesday, she said that she used to speak “a lot about body positivity because I had to.” Ferreira, who started modeling at 16, recalled being shoehorned into an activist role at the beginning of her career, as if her body alone was a political statement. “I’d put on a bikini for a campaign, everyone would get mad, and suddenly I was an activist,” she said. “I’m 17 years old thinking, Sure, I’ll be an activist if that’s what you want.”
Ferreira explained that, because her weight “fluctuates,” she’s been forced to talk about her body for her entire career. “The comments are constant,” she said. “I could be in character as someone else or just being myself, and the focus is always on my body.”
She also said she doesn’t want to participate in more dialogue about her weight — or other people’s, for that matter — “because it perpetuates an unhealthy society.” “If we just keep focusing on looks,” she said, “we all end up hating ourselves or becoming botched versions of ourselves.”
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