Alabama Barker Had A Stern Response To Getting Body-Shamed While Out With Kourtney Kardashian
The teen had words for both the trolls and the paparazzi after being photographed with her stepmom.
Anyone who comments on another person’s weight or weight gain is totally and completely out of line. But there’s a special place in hell for those who make negative, body-shaming comments about the weight and appearance of teen girls. Between the patriarchy, constant advertising, and impossible beauty standards, they are already dealing with enough.
Teen girls who are in the limelight are hit especially hard by body-shaming, and that was certainly the case this week when the paparazzi snapped pictures of Kourtney Kardashian and her stepdaughter Alabama Barker leaving a Los Angeles restaurant on Friday.
The 17-year-old girl, who is the daughter of Travis Barker and Shanna Moakler, was obviously not about to walk the red carpet in a black T-shirt, black hoodie, black pants, and flip-flops — in other words, she looked like a totally normal teenaged kid out with a parent.
But leave it to the internet to immediately comment on her weight and appearance.
Luckily, Barker seems to be surrounded by people who are used to this kind of awful treatment, both my paparazzi and by keyboard warriors, and her response to the hate was incredibly mature and measured for a teenager — and it even had a pretty big hint of spice.
“That’s my face when I see all the fake pages commenting on my weight in paparazzi pictures and saying I’m a catfish or saying I’m fat,” she said in a TikTok video on the Sunday after the picture was snapped.
“First of all, let me eat you up because I’m so fat,” she began. “Paparazzi will purposely take pictures of you with your mouth open, middle of a sentence and any ugly picture they can get of you just for views. I would love to see you guys get random pictures of you leaving the grocery store middle of the sentence with your mouth wide open, and let’s see how beautiful you look.”
Very solid point.
She also opened up about how she’s feeling about her weight change and why her appearance has changed — information that she should in no way have to share with the public!
“I also have a thyroid problem and an autoimmune disease so that’s one of the main reasons why I’ve weight gained,” she explained. “So it would be very appreciated if you would keep your opinions to yourself, it will get you further in life. Once my thyroid disease is balanced and my autoimmune disease is balanced, I will go back to my normal weight, which is causing my weight gain.”
She also made a good point about how human it is to change in appearance over time.
“You guys also act like I’ve gained 1,000 pounds,” she said. “It’s like five or ten pounds, which is so normal for a lot of girls. Weight fluctuates. I don’t want any girls young who are watching this to think that there’s something wrong with it.”
And finally, she added that even if she gained more weight, it’s not necessarily unhealthy, anyway.
“There is a certain point if your health is getting affected by it, that you need to change it, but, no, that’s not the case for me,” she said. “And I would appreciate if you guys would put yourselves in my shoes.”
It is so sad that the public is still body-shaming teen girls. And even sadder that these girls have to put their brave, vulnerable selves out there to explain and defend how they look. Barker had a great response to the comments, but she shouldn’t have to do it at all.
