Good Place star adds name to body-positive campaign
Actress Jameela Jamil was motivated by her own self-esteem issues to join the body positive campaign launched by bosses at intimates brand Aerie.
The Good Place star, 32, recently joined her peers Busy Philipps and Samira Wiley for the latest shoot in the #AerieREAL Role Models movement to help inspire young women to have a healthy self image.
The stars are helping to promote the brand’s stance against photoshopping promo pictures and Jamil couldn’t be more thrilled to be a part of spreading a message of self-acceptance.
“I wanted to work with Aerie because they’re one of the only brands I’ve ever seen actually take inclusion seriously, and it’s not performative,” she tells Elle. “It runs throughout the entire brand: their desire to reflect, on their website and in their stores, what we see outside in everyday life, which just never happens.”
There was initial backlash online from some who said the brand’s sizing is not as inclusive as promised. Jamil agreed, tweeting: “Just sat down with some of the bosses at @ aerie who assured me they are already working on becoming more and more inclusive in sizing. But please don’t lose sight of the fact that it’s also so cool to have blind, disabled, black, Asian, gay and sexual assault survivors repped too.”
The British-born Jamil has been open about her own self-image struggles and learning to take care of her body after battling an eating disorder.
“I also stopped menstruating when I had an eating disorder, so my body has been in jeopardy so many times that I’ve, frankly, by the age of 30, a little bit late but better late than never, learned to treat it with lots of kindness and respect,” she says.
Jamil has had to work hard to stop her own negative thoughts regarding her appearance, aiming to become her “own best friend.”
“I don’t talk s--t to myself anymore,” she says. “Every time it crops up I stick up for myself the way that I would for a friend or for a stranger even. The things that women say to themselves in their head, they would never tolerate being said to someone that they love. So I’ve decided to be my own best friend.”
Jamil, Philipps and Wiley join fellow celebrities like Yara Shahidi and Rachel Platten in the ongoing #AerieREAL Role Models campaign.