We’re going to be talking about a much more serious topic, a topic that has plagued millions of people. It affects their mental health, their bodies, and how they perceive themselves in the world. Body dysmorphia is no joke, and it needs to be talked about more. Thanks to so many celebrities, it’s becoming much more discussed, and so many are seeking help for it.
For those that don’t know, or never knew the correct term for this phenomenon: Body dysmorphia disorder (BDD) is an obsessive anxiety disorder. It is the disorder where one obsesses over their physical image, more often their body image, and picks it apart. They can react with shame, depression, developing eating disorders, and isolation, per MayoClinic.
A 2016 study estimated that two percent of the general population suffers from body dysmorphia. There have been a lot of studies trying to find the difference between how many men and how many women suffer from BDD, with some saying men suffer from it more, and more saying women suffer from it more. However, it’s generally agreed upon that it’s a split issue, and BDD can affect anyone (even A-listers)!
From Megan Fox to Priyanka Chopra, Billie Eilish to Sam Smith, so many stars have opened up about this (and we love their vulnerability when discussing this important issue).
Check out which celebrities have opened up about body dysmorphia, and if you want resources, be sure to check out the ADAA’s list.
Megan Fox
One of the most recent celebrities to discuss body dysmorphia is Megan Fox, who revealed in a May 2023 interview with Sports Illustrated that she has body dysmorphia, saying, “I don’t ever see myself the way other people see me… The journey of loving myself is going to be never-ending, I think.”
Billie Eilish
Billie Eilish has been open about her body dysmorphia struggles, especially throughout her life. She told Rolling Stonein a previous interview how her body dysmorphia was at her worst while in dancing class. “That was probably when I was the most insecure. I wasn’t as confident. I couldn’t speak and just be normal,” she said. “When I think about it or see pictures of me then, I was so not OK with who I was.”
She added, “That was the peak of my body dysmorphia. I couldn’t look in the mirror at all.”
Holly Madison
Former Playboy star Holly Madison talked to People in 2023 about how her time living with Hugh Hefner and other models in the Playboy Mansion led to her to develop body dysmorphia. “I was always kind of wondering what’s wrong with me,” Madison explained. “[Hugh] had a way of making me feel like I wasn’t pretty enough, and I would look around to everybody else and constantly be wondering, what’s so different about them and why are they so much better?”
She recalled constantly asking herself, “What can I do? What can I change? How can I look better?” and considering plastic surgery to attain the signature Playboy bunny look. “When I look at what the typical Playboy bunny looks like with the blonde hair and big boobs, I always wanted to look like that,” says Madison, who ultimately did have a rhinoplasty and breast augmentation. “That was just something I would see and it would resonate with me, and it wasn’t to impress any certain person.”
Lili Reinhart
In a previous interview with Glamour,Riverdale alum Lili Reinhart said she has a “specific type of body dysmorphia that stems from acne.” She added, “I see any acne on my face as an obsessive thing. [It’s] the only thing I can think about, and it makes me want to hide. I cried last night to my mom over FaceTime because of how ugly I felt I looked. My skin has caused me a lot of anxiety and sadness.”
Priyanka Chopra
In a previous appearance on The View, Priyanka Chopra talked about how the constant criticism she faced really got to her in the beginning of her career. She spoke about what people would say, remarking: “Before I became an actor, I met a producer about the possibility of acting. I was a beauty pageant winner at that time, Miss World. And he said that everything was wrong about me. He said my nose was not proportionate, the shape of my body was not proportionate.”
However, in another interview with Yahoo Life, she talked about how she blocks out the haters and focuses on self-love. “Well, I won’t lie that I don’t get affected by it. My body has changed as I’ve gotten older, just as everyone’s body does, and I’ve had to adapt mentally as well with like, OK, this is what it looks like now, this is what I look like now, it’s alright, and catering to my now body and not my 10- or 20-years-ago body,” she said.
“I just try to remind myself that I am loved and I feel good from the inside. I feel confident when I walk into a room and I try to remind myself that that has nothing to do with my body. Even though this culture gives credence to that, too much, maybe,” she added.
Demi Lovato
Demi Lovato has been one of the most candid celebrities when it comes to talking about eating disorders and body dysmorphia, and shedding a light on how being in the public eye can exacerbate both heavily.
In a previous interview on Pretty Big Deal with Ashley Graham, Lovato discussed how they would exercise three times a day, always be cognizant of food, and really had to later work on recovery. “I thought the past few years was recovery from an eating disorder, when it actually was just completely falling into it,” they said. “Maybe my symptoms weren’t as obvious as before, but it was definitely an eating issue.”
Robert Pattinson
Robert Pattinson told Australia’s Sunday Stylemagazine back in 2015: “I get a ton of anxiety, right up until the second I get out of the car to the event, when suddenly it completely dissipates. But up until that moment I’m a nut case. Body dysmorphia, overall tremendous anxiety.”
Cameron Diaz
“I am absolutely a victim to all of the societal objectification and exploitations that women are subjected to. I have bought into all of them myself at certain times,” Cameron Diaz said to Michelle Visage on the podcast Rule Breakers. per Cosmopolitan. “It’s hard not to, it’s hard not to look at yourself and judge yourself against other markers of beauty, and I think that that’s one of the biggest things… The last eight years, girl, I’m like wild. I’m like a wild animal, like a beast and I don’t care!”
Hayden Panettiere
Hayden Panettiere has been open about all the struggles in her life, including the body dysmorphia she faced as a teenager in the public eye. Back in the day, paparazzi would take candids of her and make fun of her cellulite (which is totally not cool, because she is gorgeous and cellulite is 100 percent normal!)
“I was mortified. “It gave me such body dysmorphia for so long. But I remember reminding myself that beauty is an opinion, not a fact. And it has always made me feel better,” she said to Women’s Health per ANI.
Uma Thurman
Uma Thurman told Talk magazine back in the late 1990s, per DailyMail, “Ever since I had my baby I’ve had that body dysmorphic disorder. I see myself as fat.”
Tallulah Willis
Back in 2021, Demi Moore and Bruce Willis’ youngest daughter Tallulah Willis shared an Instagram post that she struggled with thinking she looked more like her father than her mother. “I punished myself for not looking like my mom, after being told I was BW twin since birth – I resented the resemblance as I believed wholly my ‘masculine’ face was the sole reason for my unlovability – FALSE,” sh wrote. “I was/am inherently valuable and worthy, at any life stage, at any size, with anyhair do! (As are you).”
She wrote more about what she’s struggled with, along with what she does to help her in a BDD spiral like -”breaks from social media,” “reading fantasy fiction books.” “find a safe person,” “go for a walk,” etc.
Chloe Ferry
Back in 2018, reality star Chloe Ferry swore off cosmetic surgery as well, after spending upwards of £50,000 on plastic surgery. Speaking to Closer magazine, per the Sun, she said that body dysmorphia led to cosmetic surgery, and therefore led to more inner turmoil. “It’s ever since I started having surgery that I’ve felt like this, and maybe after some of the negative comments…. Of course, it’s a bit addictive. But I can stop myself, I’m happy with myself now.”
Sarah Michelle Gellar
Sarah Michelle Gellar told Health magazine in a now-archived post via EOnline back in 2011 that she “totally” has body dysmorphic disorder. “I think most women do.”
Brittany Snow
Brittany Snow said back in 2007 that her “therapist diagnosed me with anorexia, exercise bulimia—instead of throwing up you go to the gym for hours—depression and body dysmorphia.”
She added, “All that, and yet I still had a career! It’s shocking how many people in the business have great careers and this too, and don’t talk about it. It’s that drive and perfectionism.”
Sam Smith
Sam Smith has been open about their body image journey, and after years of body dysmorphia, they recently revealed how they’ve reclaimed their body.
“When I was 25 I came off tour exhausted. I looked to role models in the body world. Every time I went to the pool I felt self-conscious, but I forced myself to take my top off,” they said to the Sunday Times. “It paid off because I now have the opposite of body dysmorphia. I look fabulous. I’m finally getting a tan. I’m burnt in places I’ve never been burnt.”
Miley Cyrus
Miley Cyrus said her iconic Disney role of Hannah Montana caused body image issues for her, along with an identity crisis. She said, per EOnline, the show “probably caused some body dysmorphia because I had been made pretty every day for so long, and then when I wasn’t on that show, it was like, ‘Who the f*** am I?'”
Jameela Jamil
Jameela Jamil talked about the eating disorders she had as a teenager, and her body dysmorphia as an adult in a previous interview with People. “The only time I look in the mirror is when I put on my eyeliner in the morning and when I take it off at night,” she said. “I’m not interested in my appearance. I still suffer from body dysmorphia so it can be very distracting for me. Doing that has helped me concentrate on progressing and doing things that enrich my life, like watching my career grow and my relationships grow. That’s what gives me a wonderful sense of self.”
Taylor Swift
We all remember the one music video where Taylor Swift hinted at her body dysmorphia, specifically the scene where she steps on a scale, and instead of a number, it reads the word “FAT.” In her Netflix documentary entitled Miss Americana, Swift spoke candidly about how an unflattering candid let her to develop body dysmorphia, and later an intense eating disorder.
The photo led her “to just starve a little bit — just stop eating,” she said in the documentary perNew York Post. “I don’t think you know that you’re doing that when you’re doing it gradually,” she adds.
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran recently talked about his body image struggles, and how men are not as likely to reach out about it in an interview with Rolling Stone. He said, “There’s certain things that, as a man talking about them, I feel mad uncomfortable. I know people are going to see it a type of way, but it’s good to be honest about them. Because so many people do the same thing and hide it as well.”
Amandla Stenberg
Amandla Stenberg previously told Seventeen about the pressure to “lose weight or oversexualize [her] body because it doesn’t look infantile. There have been several moments when I was filming a scene and someone came over with a small sports bra and said, ‘Put this on real quick. Your boobs look too big on camera.'”
However, she added, “If I have anxiety about something and I can’t source where it’s coming from, I’ll get in the mirror and be like, ‘Okay, girl. We bout to figure this out. What’s going on?’ And we talk through it — me and my reflection.”
Lauren Goodger
Reality star Lauren Goodger previously told New per DailyMail back in 2016 that she has BDD, saying, “Yeah, I probably do (have body dysmorphia). I never feel happy, no matter what size I am. I can look at a picture and everyone tells me I look great, but I think I look revolting.”
Marnie Simpson
Reality star Marnie Simpson revealed in Loose Women per ITVthat she is very critical of herself, saying “I pull myself apart all the time in the mirror.” She said, “I’m a lot better with body dysmorphia. At the beginning of last year was when I went to see someone about it. I was like, ‘What’s wrong with us?’ I pull myself apart all the time in the mirror.”
She had a few cosmetic procedures due to this, but remarked on the same outlet that “enough is enough” and swore off procedures.
Lana Condor
Lana Condor told Elle Canada in 2019: “I know what it’s like to have an eating disorder and body dysmorphia, and also what it’s like to be a friend to someone who has that.”
She actively works to celebrate food, adding that “That’s why I literally post about every meal I eat.”
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