On Father's Day, your social media feed was probably filled with people's reflections on their dads. It's not just your classmates or middle school crush posting about their fathers, though; celebs like to get in on the Father's Day action as well. Lucy Hale posted a sweet throwback picture of her with her father, but when she commented on the photo a little later, things took an upsetting turn.
Lucy posted a photo of herself in a nice dress holding a bouquet of flowers and standing next to her suit-wearing dad. Under the photo of the pair smiling and embracing, Lucy wrote,"You taught me to have soul. I love you daddy." But in a comment below the post, Refinery29 points out Lucy made a comment that rubbed many the wrong way. "Ugh I was so fat," Lucy wrote in a comment.
Many on Instagram have reacted to the comment, calling Lucy out for body-shaming herself.
"'Fat'? You look a healthy size. Joking or nit [sic], you should be aware if your audience and recognize that kids look up to you and when trying to immulate [sic] you they could possibly be looking in the mirror saying 'ugh, I'm so fat,'" one commenter wrote.
"Lucy I love you but please, you have never been fat in your entire life, there are people who are really fat and really struggle with their weight and maybe they look up to you so please do not say these things even as a joke," someone else said.
Others, though, are defending Lucy, saying she has insecurities just like everyone else.
"Why can't people just understand that everyone has insecurities, what's the difference between someone not famous and someone famous saying that they feel fat in something?" someone wrote.
Yes, it's true that everyone has insecurities. The real criticism is that Lucy's comment implies being fat is a negative. Lucy has the right to feel however she wants about her own body, but we also hope she remembers that fatness is not a bad thing. People undergo weight changes throughout their lives, and that's perfectly OK. Being overweight or fat isn't a bad thing; it's just a state of your body. Instead of focusing on size, we should always be focusing on being healthy and making sure we feel strong and happy with ourselves.
Others have supported Lucy's negative portrayal of being fat by commenting and saying she has always been beautiful. That implies that fat people are not beautiful, and there's a difference between being fat and being pretty. But people of all sizes and shapes can be beautiful, and there is no size immune to bullies, which is why a bully's opinion is more of a reflection on them than on you. It's important to remember that how you feel about your body often needs a change in perspective, rather than a physical change.
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To prove the point that bullies are not messengers of truth, others have jumped in the thread to shame Lucy in a different way, by calling her too skinny.
"As a public figure you shouldn't be commenting on how fat you were specially when you look like a stick," one comment says.
Body-shaming in any form is not OK, whether you're shaming someone for being over or underweight. As long as Lucy is comfortable with how she feels, that is all that matters, and others have no place making judgments about her weight.
Related: Private Photos of Lucy Hale Were Leaked Online