Although Raven Symone was always proud of the extra meat on her bones, she has recently undergone a dramatic transformation by losing a great deal of weight. This makes everyone wonder what she did to shed so many pounds and come out looking fabulous. Of course, Raven credits her weight loss to a lack of stress in her life. She does mention that she may have cut back a little here and there on her eating, but she stands firm in her conviction that her stressful life is what contributed to her unhealthy weight. Please note, Raven would be one of the last to admit her weight was previously a problem. She enjoyed her thickness and felt sexy. She has made remarks since she has lost all the weight, that she does not like all the looks and attention. She seems uncomfortable in this new skin, but had overwhelming confidence as a large woman.
Raven is to be applauded for how well she carried her weight previously. She was not ashamed of her size, nor should she have been. Too many role models today for young women are rail thin and trying to get thinner. This promotes nothing but unhealthy self images in young women and completely biases the views of men towards women. When Raven says the weight loss is natural, and she did not have weight loss in mind as a goal, many cannot believe her. There is skepticism over how she achieved the weight loss. Did she use pills, surgery or some fad diet? Raven seems too uncomfortable with her results to convince me she really tried to achieve her new look. It seems this young lady had a lot of weight taken off her mind when she no longer had the stress of her show “That’s So Raven.” Without that weight, the body weight followed. It makes sense. Stress can wreak havoc on the mind and body and Hollywood is not immune. While the stress of Hollywood is far different from that of the working middle class or the struggling poor, it is stress all the same.
All that being said, Raven gets nothing but applause here. Although she needs to learn to be comfortable in her body no matter whether it is thick or thin, she seems to have her head on straight about her body image. She did not compromise herself when she was thick, and, hopefully, she will not compromise herself now that she is thin. One last note, should she gain the weight back, her healthy spirit and attitude will get her through all the tabloids and rumor mills.