Jennifer Lopez’s Perfect Response to Being Told to “Lose a Few Pounds”

Since day one, Jennifer Lopez has been all about embracing her curvy figure — however, not everyone in the entertainment industry felt the same way about her body image. J.Lo was heavily criticized at the start of her career for her now highly praised physique. In fact, at one point she was even told to lose weight. (Can you believe that?!)

“They’d say, ‘You should lose a few pounds,’ or ‘You should do this or do that,’” the triple threat revealed in a recent interview with InStyle. But J.Lo is not here to succumb to any unrealistic ideals society has about beauty.

“It finally got to the point that I was like, ‘This is who I am. I’m shaped like this,’” she continued. “Everybody I grew up with looked like that, and they were all beautiful to me. I didn’t see anything wrong with it. I still don’t!” Yasss, queen!

This body positive mindset was ingrained into the Puerto Rican beauty from a young age and is one she continues to carry with her throughout her career. “My mom and my grandmother were the ones who drilled into me, 'This is how we are, and this is what’s beautiful,'" she said. "My dad loved my mom’s body — all the men in our family loved the women’s bodies. Being curvy or not, being 6 feet tall was never a bad thing; it was actually something that was celebrated. And so, later on, when I brought that in front of the world, I wasn’t really trying to send a message. I was just being myself."

Now, as a mom, Lopez is trying to teach this message of self-love to her 10-year-old daughter, Emme Maribel Muñiz as well.

“The one thing I really want to teach her is to love and respect herself first and to make sure she commands respect from others,” Lopez said. “I try to get her to focus on the things that matter: being a good person, friend, and daughter, being happy with herself, and doing the things she loves.”

Thank you for always staying true to yourself and keeping it real, J.Lo!