Gabourey Sidibe on self-love and building confidence

Oscar-nominated actress Gabourey Sidibe is one woman whom I deeply admire. Not only is this woman extremely talented, but she’s got a good head on her shoulders and is set on not letting critics pressure her about her weight. Here is some awesome advice from Gabourey on self-love/acceptance and building confidence, posted from Grazia Daily: At the Women’s Inspiration and Enterprise (WIE) conference in Manhattan, Sidibe spoke about being happy and body confident, something she mastered in her early 20s:

“I didn’t really get to grow up hearing that I was beautiful a lot, or that I was worth anything nor did I grow up seeing myself on TV. Then at some point when I was 21 or 22 I just decided that life wasn’t worth living if I wasn’t happy with myself so I just took all the steps that I could to figure out how to love myself and become confident. Truthfully speaking if I hadn’t found this person before that movie [Precious] I wouldn’t have even been in that movie.”

Now 29 year old Gabourey takes daily steps to build her confidence – including small things such as listening to music that makes her happy and getting manicures, getting advice from Oprah and counting her blessings. Like everyone else, this is a daily practice for Gabourey and she makes it an active choice to be happy. “People see me as a confident person but I get shaken a lot, especially being in this business. A few weeks ago I was on vacation and I went into a CVS and as I’m paying I see a picture of myself on the cover of a magazine and they’re guesstimating what my weight is? The headline was ‘Gabourey Sidibe 250 pounds’”, says the actress. In that moment she had to deal with not only the cashier seeing the horrible and inaccurate article, but also everyone else in the shop and in other shops. Sadly, it’s a tale that countless other women in the industry face. The debate about how much a female celebrity weighs is constantly analysed in the media, with things coming to a head when Lady Gaga stripped to her undies and launched her Body Revolution campaign to get back at critics who slammed her weight gain. But Gabourey believe that you have to create your own rules: “I have to keep going and living my life, so when things like that upset me I have to find things that build my confidence back up”, says Sidibe, who also hopes to start writing and working behind the camera to enhance the range of colours, shapes and sizes we see on the screen, and “because I don’t want to wait for work I want to make work”, she adds.

About The Author

Patricia Colli, Editor of Beutiful Magazine, is a human rights activist, equality advocate, and promoter of health, acceptance and wellbeing. Having experienced disordered eating, unhealthy exercise patterns and poor body image, she is especially passionate about shedding light on eating disorders and the power of body acceptance.