There have only been a few episodes of This is Us and Chrissy Metz has already managed to inspire the country with her role as Kate, who is overweight and trying to find acceptance within herself.
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Metz admitted that she too had a long road to body acceptance, but explained that her experience was more spiritual as she was coming into her own.
“Growing up I was always the chubbiest of all my friends,” Metz revealed. “It was always hard to find clothes when we went school shopping, and I would wear boy’s clothes. I remember in middle school, they didn’t have cute clothes for girls and I was like, ‘Oh, it’s OK, I’ll be edgy and wear boy shorts and stuff!’ And in my heart, I’m like, ‘God… OK. I guess I’ll just have to deal with this.’ You know, going through puberty and going through high school, it was difficult, but I also had this spiritual journey.”
Metz said her grandmother played a large part in that self-discovery.
“My grandma, who has since passed away, she instilled this — I have this really loving, unconditional acceptance of me, and she made me believe that no matter what, no matter what I look like, no matter how much I weigh, that I am perfect the way that I am.”
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Still, Metz said it took her a long time to love herself just the way she is.
“It didn’t really hit me, it wasn’t something that I actually accepted until I think I got into my late 20s, to be honest, especially being in Hollywood. It was really, really trying. Especially going to auditions where there are plus-size girls in varying sizes and shapes or, for instance, I went to one audition and there were all thin women and they looked at me like I was in the wrong place and I was like, ‘Oh, OK…’ and it had nothing to do with me,” Metz explained. “It was their projection of their insecurities. And so I’ve been on this spiritual quest and this spiritual journey since I moved to L.A. until about maybe five or six years ago that we are so much more than our bodies.”
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She added, “These are our vessels and our souls and our spirits that we get to occupy and these are the journeys that we chose to learn from and grow from. I believe that we’re either the teacher or the student and sometimes both. And I chose this journey that I’m on, that I’m going to deal with weight and these issues and then I get to have this awesome character that will relate to many people and also know that all the struggles that I went through have landed me here in this place where I get to do that.
“This is a story that needs to be told because there are people who find their self-worth in the number on the scale,” Metz said of Kate’s story line on This is Us. “I think with Kate’s story line you find out why she is the way she is, why she wants to change, and how she’s going to change but in a healthy way as opposed to crash dieting or, you know, being miserable and being depressed because it doesn’t have to be black or white.”
Do you think This is Us is handling the topic of weight loss in the right way?
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