Carly Pearce is speaking out about her long-time struggle with body image issues. The country star hopes that her story can help spread awareness about the daily struggles many men and women face daily.
"I’ve struggled with body image issues my whole life," Pearce told her record label. "I’ve been bullied as a child. I was always the tall girl; I never felt comfortable in my skin. I was told to lose weight in previous shows in Pigeon Forge, and moved to Nashville and still was just scared. And I think that just because somebody sees you as someone who – ‘Oh, they’re in shape, they run, they eat right, they can fit in little clothes,’ that doesn’t mean that we don’t all struggle with things."
She continues, "And I’ve purposely tried to post a few things that show that I haven’t always had it together or that people are mean. I just want to raise awareness for people and that we all have that insecurity of not feeling – especially as women – feeling, ‘Oh my gosh, am I skinny enough, do I look good in these pants, do I need to change?’ I change so many times some nights and just don’t feel like going on stage but I have to keep doing it."
Pearce previously turned to social media to share her struggles with self-esteem through two photos of her side by side. The photo on the right was her a year and a half ago and the other was of her more recently, at the time of the post.
In the caption, Pearce shared that the photo was sent in by a fan, which made her realize it was time to open up about a few personal struggles of her own.
"I was going about 100 miles a minute, was tired all the time, was afraid of carbs & thought the only form of exercise was seeing how many miles I could run in a week," Pearce explained of the photo on the right before explaining the photo on the left. "I’m STILL running 100 miles a minute, but I don’t struggle with fatigue anymore & have learned that weight training AND cardio make me STRONG & carbs DON’T make you fat— and you know what? I weight more now, those clothes on the right don’t fit anymore, but I FEEL better and am HAPPIER than ever.”
Photo: Getty Images