Queen Latifah is ready to change the narrative of obesity and educate the world on the health condition. The actress recently sat down with Essence to share the details of her upcoming “Bigger Than Me” campaign. While discussing, Latifah recalls a time when ‘Living Single’ executives body-shamed the cast members.
“I remember when I was doing Living Single, the word came down that we needed to lose weight and it was like, what? Now mind you, we have the number one show among Black and Latino, Latinx audiences, at the time. And we have a hit show and you’re telling us we need to lose weight. Telling us this exactly. Why are you telling us this? We look like real people. We look like real women.”
While sticking up and being the voice for her female castmates, Latifah also shares how hearing the request made her feel.
“And it was bothersome and it was disheartening, disappointing, and it made me angry and it made me just want to fight against that. I felt like we were representing women in our community and they needed to see that kind of representation.”
Queen Latifah has since teamed up with the pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk to join the “Bigger Than Me” campaign. The actress has plans on educating people on the misconception surrounding obesity. The campaign will run as a video series to destigmatize the health condition.
“There are so many things being discussed openly from mental health to all kinds of other things, why not tackle obesity?” she told the outlet. “Why not talk about that openly? Because it’s something that comes up. But I think obesity is always connected to a stigma, to shame. And what we want to do is just really educate people about what it really is, which is a health condition.”
The rapper-turned actress shared how her weight used to bother her, but now she’s more confident than ever.
“I’m sexy, I’m feeling good, my body’s right and my swag is on, you know. I’m feeling myself. And guess what, I might be a little obese, but I’m gonna work on it and I’m gonna keep it in check because I’m on it.”
