Emmy Rossum is the latest celebrity to join “I Weigh”, an Instagram movement where women share photos with captions highlighting the attributes they most value about themselves.
This may be the degrees they hold, the children they have raised, the friendships they have nurtured or the battles they have fought against cancer or mental illness. In doing so, they prove that they are much more than a number on the scales. As one follower puts it: “What I am not? My thighs. My tummy. My upper arms. Defined by my size.” She instead defines herself as "a cook, writer, music lover, book worm, model, friend and daughter.”
The initiative was launched in February by actress and television presenter Jameela Jamil, who was compelled to ask her followers what they really “weigh” after stumbling across an Instagram account that compared the weights of the Kardashian-Jenner sisters. As she scrolled through the comments and came across countless women expressing anxiety about their own sizes, she was inspired to offer an alternative.
The I Weigh Instagram account has since attracted over 100,000 followers, including actresses Kristen Bell and Rossum, who lists some of her attributes as: “One Happy marriage; 3 best friends since kindergarten; 100+ hours of television; and drive, kindness and empathy.”
Bell, meanwhile, highlighted the “two children that keep me laughing; a partner who challenges me to see all perspectives; a job that fully engages my brain; and the scar on my stomach that reminds me I did something extraordinary.”
Jamil has long been critical of how women’s looks are constantly dissected and judged, and of how social media encourages this kind of behaviour.
“We have to outlaw airbrushing in the US/UK,” she has said on Twitter. “I always fight for no editing. It makes me feel bad about myself when an editor decides that my cellulite, stretch marks or squishy arms/thighs or ethnic nose were too shameful to be seen in public. It's all a part of me, and I like it.”
So, what do you weigh?
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How can we achieve true happiness?
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