Entertainment

Jessica Simpson Says Her Post-Baby Pics Weren't Meant To Be 'Snapback' Photos

by Madison Vanderberg
jessica simpson weight: jessica simpson posing in front of white background
Cindy Ord/Getty

Jessica Simpson says her postpartum Instagram photos were never meant to be “Snapback” photos

Jessica Simpson got extremely real in her new memoir Open Book, and as more and more passages from the book hit the web, we’re gaining more insight into the star’s life that Instagram captions alone just can’t communicate. Simpson previously opened up about her struggles with addiction and being sexually abused as a child, and in a different section of the book, she gets candid about her weight and why she never wanted fans to think that she posted postpartum body photos on Instagram to fish for compliments about her supposed “snapback,” a term she says she wasn’t even aware of.

When Simpson was pregnant with her third child Birdie Mae, she kept it real AF online. She revealed that she weighed over 200 pounds during that pregnancy, that she struggled with swollen feet and ankles, and that she even broke the toilet seat, and she did it all without shame. So when Simpson started to lose the weight, she wanted to share those results with her fans too, but when fans started to “congratulate” her on “snapping back” to her pre-baby weight, Simpson realized that her candid pre and postpartum journey pics were being received in a way she didn’t expect.

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“Even now, people [are] commenting on my Instagram, ‘Oh, snap back?’ No, it wasn’t a snap back and I don’t even know what that word means,” Simpson writes. “It’s like, I work hard and when I work out, a lot of it is to release anxiety. That’s one of my tools for sobriety. Just walking, just going and talking, walking and talking with my husband. Even some of my biggest fans…They’re saying it as a compliment, but it’s like, that’s not what I was trying to get with this picture but okay.”

Simpson never wanted to reinforce the frustrating social ideal that women have to “bounce back” after baby, especially since she’s been maligned for her weight gains and losses for most of her career. She only wanted to give herself credit for working out.

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“I do want to look my best of course. And be my best and be active with my kids and run around and not feel too weighed down. It’s not that I am all about strict dieting or anything like that,” Simpson added.

Despite the number of “snapback” comments on her Insta photos, Simpson is aware that times are changing for the better and hopefully her daughters will grow up in a world where “snapbacks,” or otherwise, no longer exist.

“I just thank God times are changing a little bit and people are standing up for themselves and making it not all about body image,” she says. “I can hopefully be part of the change that my daughters grow up in a world where she can accept herself at any size.”