Raven-Symoné has opened up about the body shaming that she experienced as a child star.
Raven, who is best known for playing the lead role in Disney’s That’s So Raven series, has admitted that she underwent several surgeries to her body, before she turned eighteen.
Speaking on her podcast The Best Podcast Ever, which she hosts with wife Miranda Maday, the 37-year-old chose to speak candidly about her younger experiences.
Firstly, Raven divulged that she got a breast reduction before she became a legal adult, and claimed that it was her father, Christopher B. Pearman, who had “suggested strongly that” she “should get” the surgery.
The child star then went on to confess that she felt pressured into getting liposuction treatment, in an attempt to stop critical comments about her body.
“There was paperwork involved. He was like, 'So you don't feel bad, is there anything that you want?' I was like, 'Yeah, if I get lipo, will people stop calling me fat?’” she recalled.
“It was just a mess, just being that young and the pain of it all,” Raven added.
However, the former Cheetah Girls star later divulged that after her first breast reduction surgery, she suffered a seizure.
"I remember waking up and seeing everything … and then I just started to have this dry mouth and couldn't breathe and then I went back under," Raven explained.
When asked what her recovery was like, the singer noted: “I disassociated. The recovery was a little painful - I have scars, I still have scar tissue to this day.”
Raven continued her story by revealing that she later went on to have a second surgery for breast reduction, as she continued to receive body shaming comments.
“I actually gained weight after and had to go back for a little bit more out, because they were still ‘too big’, for other’s feelings,” she stated.
In the end, the former Disney star pleaded with her audience not to rush into getting cosmetic surgeries, concluding that “everything is through the lens of another person”.
