IN A POIGNANT Twitter post yesterday, Jade Thirlwall of Little Mix paid tribute to Jameela Jamil and the impact movements like ‘I Weigh‘ can have on society as a whole.
Sharing a quote that Jameela had posted on her own Instagram, Jade recalled an incident which took place shortly after she became a member of Little Mix – the implications of which cast a long shadow.
I nicked this from Jameela Jamil’s Instagram because I love her and I think we need more lovely women like her using their platform to spread the right message.
After posing for one of the band’s initial photshoots, the singer, then 18, was devastated to realise that her skin had been whitened and her nose had been significantly altered in the final photo.
Similarly to Jameela, in one of our first magazine shoots we did, my nose was completely changed and my skin was whitened. This was a magazine I had subscribed to as a teenager and looked up to and listened to.
♥️ Jade x pic.twitter.com/0jafBT3QNN
— Little Mix (@LittleMix) September 24, 2018
Jade, now 25, said the blatant disregard for her natural features convinced her that she needed to undergo surgery in order to fulfill the ideal the publication wrongly expected of her.
At 18, it gave me a complex and an insecurity I’d never had before and for years I was determined to get a nose job. I was that ugly the magazine had to change my appearance, right? Wrong.
Contributing her voice to a discussion which is quickly gaining momentum – not lest due to the popularity of the ‘I Weigh’ movement – Jade encouraged her followers to dismiss the ideals peddled to them by industries which exploit female insecurities.
We have all fallen victim to feeling like we need to change who we are/ what we look like in order to fit into a society that determines what is and isn’t beautiful. You are beautiful. We are all unique and beautiful in our own way. It is society that needs change, not you.
With a final nod to an Instagram page which currently boasts 156,000 followers and was created in response to Kim Kardashian’s promotion of appetite-suppressant lollipops, Jade concluded:
If you ever need reminding of how amazing you are, check out Jameela’s ‘I Weigh’ movement.
Jameela retweeted Jade’s message, admitting that it made her ‘really emotional’.
