Jameela Jamil, who plays posh character Tahani Al-Jamil in the NBC comedy The Good Place, is up against the likes of the Kardashian sisters in her fight for body positivity.
Jamil’s celebrity gave her a platform to speak up for what she stands for that she is more than willing to use. Indeed, when Jamil first joined Instagram, she was shocked by a post showing the Kardashian’s sisters with their weight written across their body.
She realized that this would never be done with men. If it was men, their net worth or their achievements would be written but not their weight.
So in March 2018 she decided to create IWeight, a body positive movement for every gender whose mission is to connect, empower and amplify diverse voices in an accessible way.
IWeigh, first started out as an Instagram page where people can share what they weigh in terms of what makes them valuable beyond their physical appearance.
“I’m going to tell people how much I weigh [in terms of] how I value myself, how I monitor my own worth ― and that is in achievements and experiences, both good and bad, and my contribution to the world.”
Jamil on her body positive movement.
With the page reaching over a million followers, Jamil expanded the movement by opening a website last fall and soon after, launching a Youtube channel where she interviewed Sam Smith, Lizzo and much more.
Since launching her body positive movement, Jamil has been making headlines for calling out celebrities such as Cardi B and the Kardashians for promoting weight-loss products like “tummy teas,” laxatives and appetite suppressant lollipops to young women and girls.
This fight is extremely important to Jamil as she was constantly fat shamed as a young girl. The way she saw women portrayed in magazines or on TV resulted in a long struggle with anorexia as a teen.
“I drank all the detox teas, I took all the laxatives, I did all the fad diets, I studied all the pro-anorexia websites. I spent every penny I had on trying to be thinner.”
she recalls in an interview with Stylist.
Her fight is not in vain. Last year, the IWeigh community assisted in changing global policies at Facebook and Instagram around diet & detox products being shown to minors. Users now have the possibility to report such posts so that Instagram can determine what action needs to be taken moving forward.
Even Kim Kardashian deleted an ad for appetite suppressant lollipops from her Twitter and Instagram feeds that was reproved by Jamil and her followers.
Because of her personal story, the actress and TV presentor felt the need to make a change and fight injustice. So when her Hollywood career blew up in 2016, it didn’t take her long before starting to speak up and become an activist.
“I think I was a teenager when I first started to really get angry about injustice, because I think in my life I faced so much direct injustice and racism and bullying and classism,” she told Huffington Post in an interview.
From a very young age, Jamil suffered from bullying at the hands of her classmate. Indeed, the actress explained that she was “beaten senseless by kids for being from a Pakistani family”.
Her life took a turn when, at 17 years old, she was hit by a car leaving her unable to walk for over a year. From that experience, she learned to be more open minded and she was now ready to tackle any new opportunity.
In 2012, Jamil started working for BBC Radio 1 where she became the first woman ever to host The Official Chart. However, she felt uncomfortable as UK tabloids focused on her appearance instead of her work and fat-shamed her.
Two years after starting her career in the public eye, Jamil gave a speech at the Body Confidence Awards in the House of Commons on the subject of self-esteem, body image and the media
That was the first time that she spoke up about body image issues.
Everything seemed to be going for the best in her career when she got a cancer scare in 2015. Once she learned that she was not sick, she decided to fulfill her dream and moved to Los Angeles to be an actress.
“I’d been told I was too old, too fat and too ethnic to try and make it into America at 28,” she told CNBC in an interview.
With no acting experience, she auditioned for the role of a lifetime : Tahani Al Jamil on The Good Place. She nailed her audition and landed the role which turned her into the internationally famous actress she is today.
Jamil is not done yet. In September 2019, she gave a speech about her work against the diet industry and her activism at the UN Concordia. Currently, IWeight is also campaigning for two bills to reach the Senate.
Throughout her career, she has also been fighting against racism which she still suffers from as a celebrity, especially from online trolls. Landing a role on a show that has been praised for its diverse casting is therefore a victory for her.
When different American states started updating their laws to make acess to abortion harder or illegal, she once again stood up and told her story. She also voiced her support for the #MeToo movement. And, she created a safe space for people on Instagram while spreading a body positive attitude.
Jameela Jamil is determined to say what she thinks and to keep on fighting as she wishes to set a better example for the next generations. Celebrity activism is important as it sheds a light on particular issues and being represented can help people who are struggling to feel good in their own body.
