It's hard to wake up feeling 100 percent confident and in love with our bodies every day. When we're constantly being bombarded with different messages about what it means to be "beautiful," it's easy to get weighed down by all the negativity.
With the pressure of paparazzi, red carpets and exposure to ridicule from the public, celebs aren't immune to these insecurities either. But instead of letting these thoughts get the best of them, scroll down for 12 BS-free beauty and confidence lessons shared by some fierce celebs.
1. Never sacrifice your health (mental or physical) to look a certain way.
"I don't have the body of a model or Barbie. My main thing about being in the spotlight with my fans is, I want to be real to them. I have my problem areas, but I'm happy in my skin right now. I'm not going to sacrifice my mental health to have the perfect body."
-- Demi Lovato
2. Keep working at accepting you body -- it will come with time.
“I’ve accepted my body shape more as I’ve got older. I went through a stage of wanting to have that straight-up-and-down model look, but I have curves and hips, and in the end you have to accept yourself as you are. My weight has fluctuated and when you’re growing, your body is still figuring itself out and it takes a while to settle down. I keep telling myself that I’m a human being, an imperfect human being who’s not made to look like a doll, and that who I am as a person is more important than whether at that moment I have a nice figure... We have these unbelievably high expectations of ourselves, when actually we’re human beings and our bodies have a function.”
-- Emma Watson
3. Some things are just out of your control; it's not worth obsessing.
“There are so many beautiful things about each and every individual person and nobody’s perfect so there’s no point in obsessing. Just be happy with what you have and do what you can and the rest is not up to you.”
-- Nina Dobrev
“You just got to work with what you’ve got. You can always want to improve yourself. There’s nothing wrong with that... Don’t beat down on yourself.”
-- Vanessa Hudgens
5. We all have our "off days" -- and that's okay.
“I was always a lot bigger and thicker than a lot of girls and so I always had an issue with that... I think the first time I kind of got over that was when I did an audition for a little modeling shoot thing, and it was for plus sized girls... and I remember being in line and being like ‘All these girls are so beautiful. And they’re fine with who they are. Why can’t I be that way?’... I think that was when I first realized that I could be totally fine with who I am. The thing is, it’s a daily struggle. It’s a daily thing for me to be able to wake up and be like ‘you know what? I’m okay with myself today.’ Of course everybody has those times when they’re just like ‘I wanna put a bag over my head. I don’t want anybody to see me. Ever.” I go through it a lot."
-- Jordin Sparks
6. You can be beautiful without showing lots of skin.
"I want to make sure [my fans] can see that you can be beautiful without having to show everything... it's really about dressing for yourself in what makes you feel beautiful."
-- Zendaya
7. Don't compare yourself to heavily edited images in the media.
"You are ALL beautiful. Please don't ever try and look like the people you see in magazines or posters because it's fake. It only causes an unhealthy mind about how you see yourself. You are perfect the way you are."
-- Ashley Benson
"There’s a lot of importance placed on physical perfection in this industry, and I wish my favourite stars didn’t look perfect because I think fans (me included) have these feelings of worthlessness, like they’ll never be as pretty/talented/whatever, as a result of this intense photoshop culture and the endless strive for perfection."
-- Lorde
9. Never let your body or insecurities related to your body keep you from pursuing a dream or goal.
"I want to let women of all sizes out there know -- you can do whatever you put your mind to! It doesn't matter what size you are, what color you are. You can do whatever, whatever, whatever you put your mind to!"
-- Amber Riley
10. We are all built differently.
“I’m a young woman and you go through that -- you see someone’s body or you see a picture and you’re like ‘Oh, why don’t I look like that?’...and I’ve had to come to the realization that everyone has a different body and different genetics... you have to understand that no one’s going to have the same body.”
-- Jessica Szhor
11. What you perceive as a flaw might not be a flaw in everyone's mind.
“You’re like ‘don’t pay attention to this’ and nobody was paying attention to it until you said it... Your imperfections make you beautiful. It’s those little things that you don’t like that someone else will find very unique and very special about you. So accept it and learn a way to own it, even if it’s not one of your favorite parts, just own it because it’s who you are.”
-- Keke Palmer
“I definitely have body issues, but everybody does. When you come to the realization that everybody does that -- even the people that I consider flawless -- then you can start to live with the way you are. I’ve read interviews with some of the most beautiful women who have insecurities. And you look at them and you’re like, ‘How do you have? Name one thing wrong with yourself,’ and they could name a handful."
-- Taylor Swift
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