We Need To Talk About My Best Friend Jennifer Lawrence

Okay, so Jennifer Lawrence isn't actually my best friend but a lot of the time I wish she was. She's self-deprecating, she's body confident, she's hilarious and the chemistry between her and her co-stars either mean she's one phenomenal actor or is really a genuine person that people love to be around. She seems like a healthy role model for young people and she's beautiful. So why do we need to talk about her? Because she's fucking shit up.

In the photos above you see Jennifer airbrushed for a Glamour magazine shoot - one of the first editorials I saw of her and I fell slightly in love. You see her dressed down in casual gym gear too. Yes, there's the airbrushing differences with an inch off her hips and so on but generally she looks like a slim, healthy woman, right? People call her fat. The media call her fat. She says herself that in Hollywood she's considered obese and that she's been told to lose weight for roles and has refused. That's great. Empowerment and body confidence is what I'm all about! You tell 'em, Jen.

But wait...

You don't exercise Jen? You want to punch people in the face who enjoy going to the gym? So, you don't play Mystique which is a rather physically demanding role in the X-Men prequel and now the X-Men prequelish sequel? You didn't work out for that or build strength for the role? Katniss? Did you not train? Did you still honestly eat 3000 calories of pizza and hot dogs when you're running around a jungle in Hawaii shooting arrows? No training? No exercise? You keep talking about food, Jen. At every red carpet event you are so hungry. You talk about all the food all the time. When asked about what you eat you say whatever you want and give examples of McDonalds, pizza, chips - that's normal. Hey, we all eat them and most of us actually enjoy them. However we also understand moderation and that living off these foods isn't healthy. Most of us don't talk about eating constantly either.

I completely understand a twenty three year old woman, actor or not, saying that she wishes she could dig in to all the unhealthy food she wants to and not go to the gym. I'd even understand her saying she indulges and she has a fast metabolism and that's simply the way she is built. I understand saying she's happy and confident in her skin and right now in her career doesn't need to lose weight in order to get work and interesting full roles. Not all of us like exercise and that's great but to say you don't is a lie when in the next breath you talk about the gruelling training schedule and the injuries suffered. You obviously move. It may not be on a treadmill but if this is all about the young girls out there not skipping dinner in order to look like Katniss, you do need to specify.

On that note, girls will starve to look like Katniss. Some girls are fat and want to be like Katniss and standing there saying "Yes, but Katniss is not stick thin" doesn't change the fact that Katniss is long, strong and slim and probably miles apart from some of the teens in questions body type. Sure, they won't starve to a model-esque thigh gap but will they quit eating all those foods you advocate as your lifestyle? I'm sure they would. Katniss is a great role model for girls but we live in a society where the media and society in general perpetuates slim as in and you're not a fat ambassador. You don't live up to a size 16 and claim it as the ideal. You are a perfectly slim, gorgeous woman professional actor who fits in far more with the Hollywood ideal than at Weight Watchers.

All in all, Jennifer Lawrence, I salute you for being a seemingly normal person in a city and profession of crazy but you need PR training because while you are talking about yourself and being body confident it doesn't add up. Talk about the importance of being comfortable in your skin even if that means you feel you need to be a healthy weight. Talk about the craziness of Hollywood some more and how the standards are unrealistic but do not stand there and say you eat so much and don't exercise at all because it simply perpetuating the myth that your body is somewhat a poster child. I'm happy for you to run the body confidence parade as long as you make room for those who eat well, exercise a lot, talk about everything in moderation, are thin and are also body confident because surely it's how we promote health that's the way forward?

With some PR training about how to handle situations such as these without overcompensating one way or the other, you'd be spot on. Until then, stop talking about food. You're actually making it seem like you have a problem with it.