Ariana Grande is standing up for herself amid renewed criticism online about her appearance.
The Wicked: For Good star, who has been in the public eye for well over a decade, is once again making it clear that she is not interested in having fans scrutinize her body. In a Saturday Instagram Stories post, Grande shared a clip from a December 2024 interview featuring her and costar Cynthia Erivo.
“Resharing this from last year as a loving reminder to all,” she captioned the video. The resurfaced clip sees Grande directly address beauty standards and body-shaming, shutting down online commentators who fixate on aspects of her body.
“I’ve been kind of doing this in front of the public and a specimen in a petri dish, really, since I was 16 or 17,” Grande said in the 2024 video. “I have heard it all. I’ve heard every version of it, of what’s wrong with me. And then you fix it, and then it’s wrong for different reasons.”
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Grande noted that for years, she has been picked apart for “even just the simplest thing,” including her appearance. Of hearing such comments at a young age, she added, “It’s hard to protect yourself from that noise.”
She continued, “There’s a comfortability that people have commenting on that that I think is really dangerous. I think that I’m really lucky to have the support system that I have to just know and trust that I’m beautiful. But I do know what the pressure of that noise feels like. It’s been a resident in my life since I was 17, and I just don’t invite it in anymore. It’s not welcome.”
Noting that this is something everyone experiences, no matter their level of fame, Grande encouraged viewers to protect themselves from such critiques. “However, you all can protect yourself from that noise, whether it’s at a family reunion or online, if you have to block people, I don’t care,” she said. “If you delete the app entirely. You keep yourself safe because no one has the right to say s—.”
The resurfaced clip comes amid speculation online about the appearance of several Wicked: For Good cast members. As for Grande, this is far from the first time that the Eternal Sunshine singer has pushed back against speculation about her body. In April 2023, she addressed fan “concern” about her weight with a candid TikTok video.
“I don’t do this often. I don’t like it. I’m not good at it,” she started the video. “But I just wanted to address your concerns about my body, and talk a little bit about what it means to be a person with a body and to be seen and to be paid such close attention to.”
She continued, “There are many different ways to look healthy and beautiful. And personally, for me, the body that you’ve been comparing my current body to was the unhealthiest version of my body.”
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She then shared that the images of her that people consider “healthy” date back to a difficult period in her life.
“I was on a lot of antidepressants, and drinking on them, and eating poorly, and at the lowest points of my life when I looked the way you consider ‘my healthy,’ but that, in fact, wasn’t my healthy,” she said. She concluded by telling fans, “I think you’re beautiful no matter what you’re going through.”
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Grande is currently making the rounds to celebrate the release of Wicked: For Good, which made its splashy theater debut earlier this month. In addition to Grande and Erivo, the Jon M. Chu-directed film also stars Jonathan Bailey, Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum, Ethan Slater, Marissa Bode, and Bowen Yang.