According to Yvette Nicole Brown, being body positive and being concerned about your weight are not mutually exclusive.
March 8, the “Act Your Age” actress is launching a series of talks with the It’s Bigger Than Me movement to spread awareness about the fact that obesity, something many others in this country, including over 75 percent of Black people, live with, is a disease. Among her messaging is one important thought: caring about your weight isn’t inherently bad.
“Being focused on your health does not mean that you’re not body positive. I think it’s actually the most exemplary way that you can be body positive because you need your body to continue to live,” Brown said when chatting with theGrio about her upcoming It’s Bigger Than Me series.
Brown said somewhere down the line, society at large developed the idea that if you’re being body positive, you can’t care about physical health.
“Why can’t I think I’m fly and still get my numbers checked?” she added.
Dispelling this misconception is just one part of the conversations she will host throughout her new series. The “Community” actress will also discuss with other celebrities the realities of living with obesity and how the disease can be managed. While addressing the issue is absolutely vital for America, the nation with the highest rates of obesity, it’s also personal for Brown.
“I’ve been living with obesity my entire life. My weight has fluctuated a thousand different ways. Anyone that’s watched me on TV has seen it go up and go down and everywhere else,” she said, adding, “I was touched by the idea of obesity being a disease. I had never heard that before. I didn’t realize that that’s what it was.”
Brown’s story is just one of many. As a Black woman, she is a member of the demographic impacted most by this disease. According to the Centers for Disease Control…
Read the full article here
