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Kate Winslet reveals she was fat-shamed as a child

It’s difficult enough to exist under the tabloids’ watchful eye as a celebrity, but to make fun of about size of your body as a child?

Kate Winslet

It’s difficult enough to exist under the tabloids’ watchful eye as a celebrity, but to make fun of about size of your body as a child? That’s something you carry for the rest of your life.

Yesterday at a U.K. charity event, actress Kate Winslet gave an unapologetically candid and moving speech about the body shaming she endured as a young girl who dreamed of being an actress.

"I had been bullied at school," she said, according to The Telegraph. "They called me Blubber. Teased me for wanting to act."

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She said that the challenges continued into her early career, with casting agents telling her that she wasn't what they were looking for. "I wasn’t the prettiest. I was even told that I might be lucky in my acting if I was happy to settle for the fat-girl parts."

But that did not deter her from pursuing her dreams, and her persistence led to her big break—being cast as Rose in Titanic. "The most unlikely candidate—Kate from the sandwich shop in Reading—suddenly acting in one of the biggest movies ever made. You can be from anywhere and you can do anything, believe it. It is possible to overcome your fears."

“I learned to embrace my flaws and make no apologies for who I am," she continues. "I dug deep and I decided that I simply wouldn't listen when they said my body didn't fit. This is who I am, the real me, Kate from Reading."

This isn’t the first time Kate has been a weight-acceptance warrior. She’s known for rejecting photo retouching, and recites body-positive mantras to her daughter Mia, as she shared on an episode of Running Wild With Bear Grylls.

As someone as self-actualized as Kate, it sure would be nice to have her whispering constant positive affirmations in our ears. Only then will the world know body positivity.

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