Athiya Shetty opens up on body shaming, stresses on empathy

Mumbai : Athiya Shetty recently revealed that she has been a victim of body shaming in her childhood because she looked a certain way and that it took her a long time to gain her lost confidence.

Recollecting her memories, she said, “Yes I have fallen into the category of body shaming when I was young. People need to realise that body shaming is not only associated with being overweight but also being skinny. I have always believed that commenting on someone’s weight, appearance or anything that can make them less confident is something that is inappropriate.”

Highlighting the importance of carefully choosing words, the actress said, “Our words have such an impact on people and our everyday lives. It’s important to be kind and understand that how we feel reflects in our everyday activities as well as our everyday doings and it can come from a very subconscious place as well. So one has to be mindful of how they comment and what they say about people.”

Talking about her healing process, she said, “I used to be very, very conscious of my body and I still am, but I am a lot better because I am a lot more confident about myself and who I am as a person today.”

Talking about the notion of beauty in society, she said, “There are so many false adjectives of beautiful. I think it is scary because you see so many people wanting to look the same way and because of social media it is also starting from a very young age which is sad.”

The actress shared that flaws are a mark of being human and there’s nothing wrong with imperfections, “Being imperfect is your own perfect, it is important to help society understand that not everyone is the same so I think it’s more spoken about for women rather than men to have different body types. All men don’t need to be muscular and look a certain way because it is tough to sometimes be a certain way and you shouldn’t need to feel that,” she concluded.