Ariana Grande Is Getting Thinner. Why Is Nobody Allowed To Say It?

Everyone is concerned for Ariana Grande. More precisely, over her weight. Social media has been talking about her visible rib cage and sharp shoulders; meanwhile, her defenders are saying we shouldn’t comment on another person's body at all. Yet should we really remain silent while someone grows visibly thinner in front of millions of young fans? At what point does concern become appropriate – when it’s too late? Lastly, what message are we sending when we pretend that obvious signs of undernourishment are normal, healthy, and aspirational?

This article is an opinion piece. The viewpoints expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the opinions and viewpoints of Evie Magazine.

What the Internet Is Saying

Everyone is trying to figure out what’s happening to one of the biggest pop stars in the world. One viral post on X I saw this week argued that Ariana’s apparent obsession with becoming "as tiny as possible" may be tied to a desire to be infantilized, pointing to her oversized sweaters, breathy speaking voice, signature high and large ponytail, and what the user described as a tendency to present herself as a shy little girl despite being a woman in her thirties. 

This idea spread quickly because it’s what many people have been quietly observing for years: Ariana Grande has aged. She’s 32 now. However, Ariana Grande's persona, her image of a dainty, helpless girl often has not. For a generation that grew up watching her on Nickelodeon, this notion has become difficult to ignore.

Ariana remains one of the most influential women in entertainment, yet much of her public image continues to revolve around visual cues associated with youthfulness. Take, for example, her soft-spoken demeanor and the wide-eyed expressions that have become part of her brand. Some will argue that this is a result of method acting as Glinda for two years, but now that she's back to being Ariana (just in time for the tour), her manner of speaking and moving as a delicate girl remains the same.

Believe it or not, Many of the strongest reactions online haven't come from critics. They've come from women who say they've been where they believe Ariana is now. A lot of them are fans who are afraid she’ll become even skinnier. One user wrote, "I'm sorry but Ariana looks how I looked here when my organs were starting to fail, nobody is critiquing her, but not allowing young people to see her and think her body is healthy is essential."

Another wrote, "I admit it, as a person with an ED (also an Arianator) it is really REALLY triggering for me that kind of obvious body checking in everywhere and every time."

Elsewhere, users shared side-by-side images of Ariana from previous years alongside more recent appearances, with one post bluntly stating that she has "always been skinny ... but it's getting worse."

These are women describing former versions of themselves.

These comments might be framed as celebrity gossip, but they’re really not. These are women describing former versions of themselves. Women remembering what obsession looked like when they were living inside it. That recognition may explain why so many women have become resistant to the argument that every discussion of Ariana's appearance is inherently cruel. Most of the people speaking up do not sound angry or mean. They sound worried.

Why Is Ariana Grande Disappearing Before Our Eyes?

The more provocative theories emerging online have attempted to explain why Ariana’s public image seems so closely tied to becoming smaller. The X post speculated that food restriction might provide a sense of control and suggested that childhood experiences with her father could be linked to her desire to remain childlike. 

Ariana has spoken openly about her father, Edward Butera, and the painful period of estrangement that followed her parents' separation. In a 2014 interview with Seventeen, she described losing contact with him as the hardest thing she had ever gone through. "Falling out of touch with my dad," she said. "It's private, but it happened last year. It took me so long to be okay with it."

She later added, "So much of me comes from my father, and for so long, I didn't like that about myself. I had to accept that it's okay not to get along with somebody and still love them."

This dynamic between Ariana and her dad may give us some context as to why some people continue to connect her public image to unresolved questions about family, identity, and growing up. 

Even though I disagree with a lot of what Ariana has done, especially when it comes to her previous relationships, I still empathize with her. Ariana has spent nearly her entire life in Hollywood and has never once had the chance to live a normal life. She entered the entertainment industry as a child and came of age on Nickelodeon during the Dan Schneider era. She learned early that being cute, lovable, and appealing could become a career. Then adulthood arrived, carrying more weight than most people experience in a lifetime: Ariana had gone through the Manchester Arena bombing. Her grief became public following Mac Miller's death. There were years of relentless scrutiny surrounding her relationships, her marriage, and eventually her divorce.

When your life is a series of tragedies played out on a global stage, you lose any sense of agency over your own story. That is often exactly where an eating disorder takes root. Anorexia nervosa, at its core, is simply about finding one thing – just one – that you have absolute authority over. Ariana's world has almost always been loud, chaotic, and demanding. Maybe the act of restriction is her way to reclaim her own skin. It’s a survival tactic, a solution, a way to stay "in control" when everything else is spinning out, until eventually, the habit starts to consume the person.

I won’t lie that life has not been gentle with her. Yet sympathy cannot be an excuse to pretend we don't see what we see. She is no longer a child navigating fame for the first time. She is one of the most influential women in popular culture, with millions of young fans who study her appearance, mimic her style, and measure themselves against the image she presents to the world. I don't want my young nieces who idolize her to starve themselves. I don't want women to hate their plump and healthy bodies because they've been made to think that being malnourished is "in."

Perhaps that's why this talk about her body should be allowed – and it has been happening, and until she gets better, it won’t disappear. Every new photo brings another round of concern and anxiety. This week, she shared an image of herself from "The Eternal Sunshine Tour" looking very thin. Her mother commented, "breathtaking."

I fear that everyone in her circle is ignoring her health, and so the public is attempting to take the matter into their own hands.

Karen Carpenter is the shadow that hangs over this entire conversation. She was 32, the same age Ariana is now, when her heart gave out from anorexia in 1983. For years leading up to her death, the public watched her perform and walk red carpets while she visibly wasted away. People saw it, but they didn't have the language to talk about it yet, so they just kept watching her work.

We've come to the haunting realization that someone can keep their career moving, keep smiling for cameras, and keep "functioning" right up until the moment their body can't take it anymore. A person can be at the top of their game and still be in a state of total physical emergency.

We’ve watched Ariana grow up on screen, and now it feels like we’re watching her evaporate. Staying quiet isn’t a sign of respect at all; I'd argue it's actually the opposite. It’s a way of saying that her physical decline is just part of the show. But she’s a person, not a brand, and her health is more important than her image. We owe it to her, and to every girl measuring their own ribs against hers, to stop pretending this is normal.