You know the scene in The Wizard of Oz when Dorothy whips back the curtain and realizes that the wizard on that big screen isn’t real, and that the truth is much more…regular? That’s what’s happening more and more on social media—only the wizard was everyone faking flawlessness on Instagram. If the past couple of years have been about anything, they’ve been about people—both ordinary and famous—finally yanking back the curtain on social media to reveal a more honest picture. Jessica Simpson was unafraid to show the world her leg hair (as was Rihanna!) and her swollen pregnancy feet and ankles. Kendall Jenner didn’t conceal her acne, while her sister Kim Kardashian continues to be transparent about her struggles with psoriasis. And Amy Schumer shared even the most difficult moments of her pregnancy.
These moments of realness aren’t only refreshing, they’re also changing the way we see ourselves. And they’re challenging advertisers, casting directors, and the media to do the same. If being a “celebrity” no longer means upholding unrealistic ideals of nonstop perfection, it gets easier to accept that our bodies are not flawed—they’re human. That’s where these celebrities—in their heartfelt and self-deprecating glory—come in.
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The model shared so many raw moments with fans during her pregnancy with son Isaac—including the details of her home birth. Now she’s showing the world the stretch marks left on her stomach after carrying her baby boy. “Same me. Few new stories,” she wrote in the Instagram caption in February 2020.
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It’s not the first time she’s been open about the changes her body went through during her first pregnancy. “Same same but a little different,” she captioned a photo of her stretch marks in August 2019.
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Jessica Simpson took her swollen pregnancy ankles public in hopes of finding some help in alleviating her suffering—and then she turned it into a hilarious take on the #10YearChallenge.
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Along with being hilarious on The Good Place, Jameela Jamil’s brand is all about body positivity and transparency—she often calls out celebrities and influencers for promoting products like diet teas. But she walks the walk too, posting about her own past struggles with an eating disorder and images of her own stretch marks.
“Boob stretch marks are a normal, beautiful thing. I have stretch marks all over my body and I hereby rename them all Babe Marks. They are a sign my body dared to take up extra space in a society that demands our eternal thinness,” she wrote on Instagram. “They are my badge of honour for resisting society’s weaponizing of the female form. ❤️ ps. My face is white because I wear spf 100 sunscreen like a boss. 🤓 PS. LOVE YOUR BROWN SKIN. I tan responsibly but I love to tan! I love to embrace and celebrate my heritage. This skin bleaching and whitening should be banned. It’s inherently racist, classist and emotionally very damaging. #brownandproud”
Ever since the early seasons of Keeping Up With the Kardashians, Kardashian West has shared her struggles with psoriasis, a skin condition in which skin cells build up and form scaly, itchy dry patches on your body. In 2019, she posted photos of a flare-up she was treating with an herbal ointment. “Psoriasis is the shits,” she captioned one shot.
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Kendall Jenner parlayed her acne problem into a business partnership when she teamed up with skin-care brand Proactiv. “While there are much bigger problems happening in the world, suffering from acne for me was debilitating,” Jenner wrote in an Instagram post when the collaboration was announced. “It’s something that I’ve dealt with since I was a young teen and has caused me to feel anxious, helpless and insecure. As humans, I don’t think we share our insecurities enough because we live in a time where being ‘perfect’ is the standard. We curate our life online and pick the pretty moments to post.”
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Amy Schumer, who suffered from intense morning sickness, or hyperemesis gravidarum, during her pregnancy, challenged the notion that pregnant women should always be glowing with just one simple Instagram post.
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Rihanna might not have mentioned her leg hair directly in this Instagram, but it set off an Internet firestorm when she first posted it. “Rihanna has leg hair in her insta post so nobody better tell me shit when I grow out my leg hair this summer,” wrote one Twitter user.
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As the clothing mogul and former reality TV star proved with a photo of her leg hair, she’s fully on board with a little leg hair. Simpson casually wrote, “Missed a spot…” Fans were here for it, because, well, it happens to all of us.
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As much as we all talk about our love for bushy brows, there’s still an unspoken rule that brows are to be brows, plural. Yara Shahidi is here to flip that narrative on its head with her absurdly adorable tribute to her unibrow. If only we’d had a role model like her when we were 17.
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Lena Dunham has long been known for real talk about her body—including “fetishizing” it, as she wrote—when illness caused her to lose a lot of weight. Now she’s on the other side of her health scare and celebrating it.
The Hate U Give star arrived at one of the film’s red-carpet premieres showing off not just a crazy-gorgeous dress but also some underarm hair. “#drama #underarmhair,” Stenberg cheekily captioned an Instagram from the event.
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Crazy Ex-Girlfriend writer and star Rachel Bloom shared a photo of her acne, saying, “The middle of shooting the season (around episode 8) is peak time for my hormones to run amok due to a hectic schedule. Try to spot the bloating, fatigue and zits and win a prize!”
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Black-ish star Tracee Ellis Ross posted a video of her nose-hair-waxing appointment on Instagram, and never has there been more real content. We’ll take her at her word—and her hysterical reaction—that you should “just say no” if the opportunity presents itself.
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Drew Barrymore took a pic showing off her off-duty brows before filming picked back up for Santa Clarita Diet. It’s a helpful reminder that there’s no reason to pluck, wax, or thread unless you want to.
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Hilary Duff proudly displayed her cellulite via social media, taking on body shaming and the idea that celebrity mothers should be expected to look a certain way.
Back in 2017, Bella Thorne was arguably at the forefront of the push for body-hair self-acceptance, with an Insta of her leg hair blowing the topic wide open in June. Via Snapchat, she wrote, “Ok fine. I’ll shave,” but this was no peer pressure moment. Thorne’s been speaking out for her grooming choices since 2016, and whether livestreaming a bikini wax or clapping back at trolls on on Twitter, she’s demonstrated you can engage with different perspectives while standing your ground.
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Brooklyn Decker once asked her Instagram followers to play Count the Chins—and now her son’s gotten into the game. She captioned this ’gram: “The moment your child grabs your neck skin and laughs ‘gobble gobble!’ Thank you, @krissyae for capturing this on camera??”
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Elizabeth Banks’s honesty and sense of humor are always a bright spot but especially so when she’s taking on self-image. She used a #TBT moment to get real about her self-esteem, writing, “Acne. Frizz. Haircuts by my friend @sorayaweddings and homemade jewelry cuz money was tight.”
She continued: “Like now, I had days when I felt beautiful and proud and days when I felt low and despondent. Like now, I mostly tried not to worry about what I look like because I also have a powerful brain, lots of abilities, kindness and creativity and at the end of the day, those inner qualities are what I value the most about myself. But yeah, looking fine feels good too so, ya know, #balance The thing I know now that I didn’t back then is that any energy I put into looking cute has to be about me and not about pleasing or attracting anybody else. Being praised for my looks is nice but not nearly as satisfying as being praised for my accomplishments or deeds.”
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Ashley Graham’s stardom has been both inspirational and a long, long time coming. Between several Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue shoots, collabs with size-inclusive Swimsuits for All, and speaking out as a body-positive icon for women of all sizes, Graham has a ton of irons in the fire. But at the core of everything remains her dedication to giving her best effort and an honest representation of the not-perfect day-to-day that entails. Her caption on this Instagram summed it up: Capturing her stretch marks and cellulite, Graham wrote, “I workout. I do my best to eat well. I love the skin I’m in. And I’m not ashamed of a few lumps, bumps or cellulite.. and you shouldn’t be either.”
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It’s hard to look at Gabrielle Union and not see a crazy beautiful unicorn frozen in time, but she too runs into funny (read annoying) skin high jinks. No zit should get in the way of celebrating a fresh haircut, so Union captioned her newly blond selfie with, “Loving the new do... My zit also loves it 👀”
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Along with the period acne Insta related to around the world, Chrissy Teigen once posted a viral photo prominently displaying some stretch marks (plus thigh bruises she got while working in the kitchen). “Stretchies say hi!” reads her caption.
