Last weekend, Meghan Trainor surprised fans by showing up at Kris Jenner’s birthday party in an outfit that most people wouldn’t recognize.
The 31-year-old “Made You Look” singer rose to fame for her curvy and voluminous body positivity.
“I’m not a size 2, but I can rock it…I’ll take my booty back,” she sang in her 2014 hit “All About That Base.”
But at Jenner’s soirée, Traynor’s curves were noticeably rejected. Instead, she looked stunningly streamlined in a black velvet column dress and fitted red jacket, her once full face defined by strict angles and dimples.
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From Ariana Grande and Amy Schumer to Trainor and Mandy Moore, some of the biggest names in entertainment are suddenly looking smaller than ever. In Ozempic’s era, getting leaner is easier than ever, but it’s also more expected, officials say.
“Body shapes used to be unique, but now they’re back to lollipop bodies and Kardashian faces,” celebrity publicist and media consultant Monique Lewis told Page Six.
Some female stars have spoken openly about their use of Ozempic and other GLP-1 drugs, and their openness has been seen as the next frontier of body positivity.
“No, I don’t look like I did 10 years ago. I have been on a journey to become the healthiest, strongest version of myself for my kids and me,” Trainor wrote in an Instagram post in March, noting that she used weight loss drugs after her second pregnancy. “Shout out to Munjaro!”
But is the new skinny really an empowering advancement, or just a medical twist on the same old Hollywood beauty standards?
Lewis sees it as a step back from the size inclusivity of the past decade, when Ashley Graham became the first plus-size model to appear on the cover of SI Swim and Lizzo first rose to fame.
Now, Lizzo has experimented with GLP-1 and slimmed down, leaving many of her previously mid-tier stars smaller.
“Every time I look at castings now, they’re looking for someone between a size 4 and 8, so 10 and under,” Lewis said. “We worked hard to get out of there, and we’re back where we were.”
Days after Traynor partied with the Kardashians, Schumer, 44, showed off her dramatic weight loss, deleting all her old photos on Instagram and posting only four recent photos of herself in a red minidress that showed off her long legs.
“I’m feeling good and happy. I deleted my old photos for no reason!” Schumer announced in the post, which received mixed reactions.
The comic “Inside Amy Schumer” has long been known for her candid stance on her appearance, and in the 2018 film “I Feel Pretty,” she steadfastly refused to have any retouching done.
She recently opened up about her battles with the hormonal disorders Cushing’s syndrome and perimenopause (both of which can cause weight gain) and her use of Maunjaro.
Still, Schumer shut down the story that she deleted all of her before-weight-loss photos because she didn’t like the way she looked, instead blaring that it was for her personal health and well-being.
“I have always been proud of my appearance,” she wrote. “I’ve been trying to get rid of the pain, and it’s finally gone. My endometriosis is getting better. My lower back is healing. Cushing’s syndrome is gone, and my face is back to normal.”
Amanda Saunders, an image consultant and celebrity stylist, told Page Six that there can be something innovative and seemingly wholesome about how famous women talk about their bodies and weight loss.
“There’s an acceptance of it where there wasn’t before, and I think that’s refreshing. At least people aren’t saying, ‘Oh, it’s all just diet and exercise,'” she said.
Not everyone is that open.
In the 2010s, Mindy Kaling flaunted her 8-10 figure in brightly colored dresses, telling Vogue, “I’m always trying to lose 15 pounds. But I never need to be. I don’t want to be.”
However, in recent years, she has lost weight dramatically. This is thought to be due to eating less and exercising more, rather than the medication.
Meanwhile, Ariana Grande’s face and body have plumped up in recent years, and much has been talked about how her appearance has changed since 2018, when she was engaged to Pete Davidson, due to the production and promotion of “Wicked.”
However, the actress mentioned her appearance during the filming of the hit musical in April 2023.
“The body you’re comparing me to now was the unhealthiest version of my body,” the star said, noting that she “was on a ton of antidepressants, drank it, and ate poorly.”
“When it seems like you think I’m healthy,[I was]at the lowest point in my life, when in fact it wasn’t my health.”
Sanders points out that many of the shrinking stars weren’t that big to begin with.
“None of these people were at a weight that wasn’t unhealthy. They might have been 8, 10, 12, but that’s the norm in most of America, not Hollywood,” she said.
It’s not just weight that’s a hot topic, but in some cases weight loss drugs as well. Stars are also talking about plastic surgery like never before, and gaining cool girl cred in doing so.
Kylie Jenner was once secretive about her cosmetic procedures, famously paying no lip service to rumors of lip fillers around 2015. But earlier this year, the Kylie founder responded on TikTok to a fan who asked about details about her breast implants. “445 cc, moderate profile, muscular lower half!!! Silicone!!! (Dr.) Garth Fisher!!! Hope this helps lol,” she wrote.
In a recent New Yorker article, Jennifer Lawrence said she plans to skip Botox treatments and fillers and get a boob job soon in preparation for a nude scene she’s filming this spring.
The mother-of-two and “Die My Love” star said: “After having my first child, pretty much everything bounced back.” “Second (child), nothing bounced off.”
There’s also the fact that rapid weight loss due to medication has led to the need for further cosmetic procedures to address sagging skin.
“All the people who lost weight on weight-loss drugs are now so sagging that they come in for treatments to tighten their skin,” Dr. Jennifer Levine, a New York City-based celebrity surgeon, told Page Six. She uses a three-in-one laser treatment to address sagging skin on the “Ozempik face” and other parts of the body.
But ultimately she sees the increased use of GLP-1 and the growing open conversation about it as a positive.
“It’s very difficult for people who have never been thin before or who have struggled to be thin to feel thin and healthy now. I don’t think you should be ashamed of being thin, just like you shouldn’t be ashamed of being heavier. This is the opposite of body positivity. We should let people make choices about their bodies,” Levine said.
But Lewis can’t help but wonder how much of a choice that is really for women in the entertainment industry.
“There’s a lot of peer pressure in Hollywood,” she says. “We’re going back to the old days of thinner being better. If they (stars) don’t have the foundation and structure to say, ‘I’m happy with my size, I don’t care.'”
