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Angela Simmons may come off as an incredibly confident young woman (that’s the impression many get from her Instagram page), but the 30-year-old revealed that it took quite some time for her to feel comfortable in her skin.
In a new interview with The Breakfast Club alongside her brother and sister JoJo and Vanessa, the mom of one revealed that growing up in the spotlight on the show Run’s House, and dealing with her share of haters on social media after the fact left her with a less than positive outlook when it came to her body. Having more curves than sister Vanessa, she interpreted it as her being “fat.”
“Growing up, like honestly speaking, when I was younger, I grew up kind of like thicker. They were always small and I always felt like, ‘I’m big,'” she said. “I didn’t embrace my curves because I was so young. I kind of had a little journal I would write in and I would always be like, ‘I think I look like this.’ And I had a little diagram and I would draw this big person and then draw myself skinny. Like, draw the person I want to be, skinny. And it was like, I had body issues. Growing up, I was concerned that I was fat. I was like, ‘I just feel fat.’ I always had that conversation. I would cry about it. And I would feel like everyone around me was smaller. I just didn’t get it.”
Surprisingly, Angela said it took picking up and moving from the East Coast to the West Coast that helped her change her mindset. In the most image-conscious place in the country, Los Angeles, she realized that if she didn’t like something about herself, it was up to her to fix it — but the natural way.
“It took me to move to L.A. when I was probably like 19 or 18 or whatever. When I got there, I learned that I’m in control of my body, right? So if you don’t like something, you can just change it by working out,” she said. “I met a trainer out there, Mike T, and I worked out, day in, day out, to the point where I got super small. My mom was like, ‘You need to eat!’ And then I just learned how to figure it out. Just work out, eat right, you’re good. But I definitely grew up with body image issues.”
As far as how she feels about herself now, Angela says, “I’m good.” She loves what she sees and it’s been a long time coming.
You can check out her thoughts on this at the 32:11 mark below. And hit the flip to check out a few images of the Growing Up Hip Hop star embracing her curves, so-called flaws and more:
