Beyoncé Got Real About Her Body In The Most Inspiring Way In Her ‘Vogue’ Interview
After years of enjoying her music and watching her career take off, I'm convinced that everything Beyoncé touches turns to gold. Whether it's a jaw-dropping performance at an otherwise boring Super Bowl, or a groundbreaking album created from the ashes of her husband's infidelity, Beyoncé knows how to create magic in everything she does. And Beyoncé's quotes about body acceptance in her Vogue interview are no exception. The multi-talented performer recently opened up in a series of essays for the magazine about quite a few personal issues, but her beautiful, raw honesty about how she feels about her body these days is sure to stick with you long after you're done reading.
Beyoncé graced the cover of Vogue's coveted September issue, and because she's Beyoncé, she made sure everything in the issue was as magical as it could possibly be: She teamed up with an incredibly talented, 23-year-old photographer named Tyler Mitchell, a groundbreaking move in and of itself, as Mitchell is the first black photographer to ever shoot a Vogue cover in the magazine's 125-year history. The 36-year-old performer also chose to write a series of essays for the magazine's September issue, as opposed to sitting down for a traditional interview. One of Beyoncé's essays explored, with raw honesty, how she feels about her body these days, particularly after giving birth to her twins, Rumi and Sir.
Beyoncé began the essay by comparing how she dealt with her first pregnancy with Blue Ivy, now 6 years old, to what it was like carrying twins for nine months, and how these changes have felt for herself and her body. She admitted she "believed in the things society said about how my body should look" in the months after having her first child. "I put pressure on myself to lose all the baby weight in three months, and scheduled a small tour to assure I would do it," she said. But in hindsight, Beyoncé explained, she realized that simply wasn't realistic, and that she'd pushed herself too far in 2012 when it came to juggling being a new mom and, well, being Beyoncé. And so, she told Vogue, she made sure to approach things differently when it came to her twins.
Now, up until Vogue's September issue launched, the public really didn't know anything about Beyoncé's experience being pregnant with twins. However, in her essay for the magazine, she revealed for the very first time that she dealt with a condition called toxemia. According to the American Pregnancy Association, toxemia, also known as preeclampsia, is when a woman experiences unusually high blood pressure during her pregnancy. The condition affects roughly 5 to 8 percent of pregnancies, the organization states, and if left untreated, it could pose serious health complications for both the mother and her baby, or in Beyoncé's case, babies.
But it wasn't just toxemia that Beyoncé experienced during her twins' pregnancy. She told Vogue she also had to undergo an emergency C-section, and that she spent several weeks in intensive care after the fact. "I was in survival mode and did not grasp it all until months later," she said.
To state the obvious, Beyoncé is a celebrity. To state something even more obvious, Beyoncé is a celebrity who is both beloved and respected by so many people, to the point where it's easy for fans and even the general public to assume her life is as "perfect" as it seems on magazine covers and international music tours. But Beyoncé made it her mission to be as candid and as honest as she possibly could be in her Vogue interview, particularly about what her body has experienced in the last several months, and how that has affected her mentally.
"After the C-section, my core felt different," she told the magazine. "It had been major surgery. Some of your organs are shifted temporarily, and in rare cases, removed temporarily during delivery. I am not sure everyone understands that. I needed time to heal, to recover."
And that's exactly what Beyoncé did. She told Vogue that she committed to allowing her body to recover from the physical challenges she'd endured during her pregnancy. "I gave myself self-love and self-care, and I embraced being curvier. I accepted what my body wanted to be," she said. While she admitted she made certain changes in her diet to get back to feeling her best — such as going vegan for a few months ahead of Coachella, as well as giving up fruity, sugary drinks, alcohol, and even coffee — she made sure to always be patient with herself as her body went through these changes, and to genuinely enjoy her curves. "I think it’s important for women and men to see and appreciate the beauty in their natural bodies," she said. In fact, she added, this was what inspired her to embrace a minimal look for her September Vogue cover in the first place. She temporarily left the wigs and hair extensions behind to show everyone that she is a human being — a human being who, just like you, sometimes doesn't know how to feel about the changes in her body that are happening right before her eyes.
When it comes to body acceptance, it's not always about loving your appearance day in and day out. Sometimes the focus really is on the word "acceptance," and for Beyoncé, that seems to be her biggest priority at the moment. "To this day my arms, shoulders, breasts, and thighs are fuller," she told Vogue. "I have a little mommy pouch, and I’m in no rush to get rid of it. I think it’s real."
