‘Pretty Little Liars’ Star Slams Body Shamers
Photo: sashapieterse27/instagram
Being a celebrity in the spotlight isn’t easy, especially when you don’t fall into the category of a 6-foot-tall, super-thin supermodel. Pretty Little Liars star, Sasha Pieterse, knows this better than most considering her weight has yo-yoed all throughout her onscreen career. Although Pieterse has an obviously healthy figure, she’s been repeatedly faced with criticism on social media for her look and body type.
“Gotta lose the weight for the Emison sexy scenes,” one commenter wrote on an Instagram photo of Sasha and her boyfriend, referring to her onscreen love life and showing how critical fans can be.
Finally fed up, Pieterse wrote an open letter on Instagram about her struggles with body image, and it’s probably one of the most inspiring messages we’ve seen come from the star thus far. She documents how her weight gain in the public eye has caused people to become surprisingly angry with her and even start rumors that she was pregnant. She then found out she suffered from a bad hormone imbalance and finally felt the need speak out about her weight gain.
See the whole message for yourself, below:
Image courtesy of Sasha Pieterse/Instagram
“Not that I was surprised, but it disturbed me that so many females were so quick to tear me down on a subject that we all struggle with. We’ve all heard our parents tell us to treat people the way you want to be treated, but I think often we don’t treat ourselves the way we should be treated,” Pieterse wrote before offering a bit of advice to fans. “Do not lower yourself to people who refuse to grow higher. If you don’t love yourself you’ll continue to chase people who don’t love you either.”
Unsurprisingly, the reactions to Pieterse’s post were overwhelmingly supportive. “This made me cry. I love you and you’re so beautiful inside and out, and I really needed to see this,” wrote one commenter. Another wrote: “Thank you for posting this, you are beautiful and so inspiring.”
While Pieterse isn’t the only celebrity to speak out in light of body positivity (Ashley Graham recently wrote about normalizing cellulite), it’s great to see a star who speaks to a younger, preteen crowd. Kudos to Pieterse for furthering the importance of using positive language toward one another on social media!
Read This Next: Too Chubby, Too Manly, Too Pretty: Successful Women Talk Being Judged for Appearance
Let’s keep in touch! Follow Yahoo Beauty on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.
