Barbie Ferreira Unleashes Her Real Opinion About The "Toxic Body Positivity Space"
In a recent interview with InStyle, Barbie Ferreira opened up about what it's like being in the spotlight as a woman who doesn't fit the traditional Hollywood box of a woman's physique. She also shared how her own experiences are sometimes a parallel of her character's storyline in "Euphoria."
The HBO hit show Euphoria has been quite the experience for model and actress Barbie Ferreira. Barbie's character Kat Hernandez is a struggling teenager who somehow gets involved in the drama of a sex tape scandal. She goes from dressing modestly and being shy to wearing sexy outfits and boasting a give-zero-effs attitude. Barbie told InStyle that moments of portraying this high schooler have been "incredibly personal."
Barbie Ferreira Admits She Struggles with Confidence
There's a scene in season 2 of Euphoria when Barbie's character Kat encounters influencers on YouTube who keep demanding, "Love yourself!" Kat becomes overwhelmed by this message ("I don't care about society! I feel like shit!" she yelled) and this is something that Barbie admits is a familiar experience.
"I think for me that scene was incredibly personal because I've been in that toxic positivity space, and it was really detrimental to my mental health a lot of the time," she told InStyle. "I don't want everyone to just focus on the fact that I'm confident, because I'm not."
"I don't want everyone to just focus on the fact that I'm confident, because I'm not."
Barbie is someone who seemingly exudes confidence, so to hear her get raw about her self-esteem is somewhat surprising. "If you're not the norm, in Hollywood or fashion, you're automatically seen as a brave person, which I think is very offensive," she continued. "And I think it's hard to always be put in that box and have this pressure to be happy with yourself at a young age."
She says every day is different and she takes every moment as it comes. She just hopes that "people will stop focusing" on her not-so-traditional physique.
In another recent interview with Who What Wear, Barbie also said that simply wearing a certain style shirt as a plus-size model shouldn't automatically signify confidence. "It’s not radical for me to be wearing a crop top,” Ferreira said. “[Comments like those are] just backhanded compliments. I’ve been doing this since I was 16. I’m 25.”
Barbie highlights that loving yourself and investing in your own self-esteem is a difficult journey that isn't necessarily linear.