Vanessa Williams Opens Up About the Pressure to Stay Thin in Hollywood

During her more than 30-year career, Vanessa Williams has been crowned Miss America, appeared in hit movies and TV shows, recorded chart-topping songs and starred on Broadway.

And while showbiz success like Vanessa’s can often come with the burden to maintain a fit figure, the 51-year-old star says she managed to ignore Hollywood’s pressures to be unnaturally thin early on in her career.

“I looked at my career and also my body as a constantly changing thing and I didn’t beat myself up,” the mother-of-four reveals in a new interview with ‘Closer.’

Vanessa and her daughter Sasha in August 2014.

“When I had a child, I gave myself nine months to get back in shape because it took me nine months to gain the weight,” the proud mother to Melanie, 27, Jillian, 25, Devin, 21, and Sasha, 14, told ‘Closer.’

But today, the constant scrutinizing of women’s bodies in the media is “ridiculous” and downright unhealthy, Vanessa added.

Related Story: Vanessa Williams Engaged to Jim Skrip

“I think the pressure now is ridiculous. What’s in the magazines are all airbrushed, everyone is dieting like crazy, taking pictures and altering them,” the former ‘Ugly Betty’ star said. “My youngest is 14 and she’s right in the thick of image and pressure and trying to look like people that are featured in magazines and it’s unrealistic, unfair and damaging.”

Photo Credit: Diane Bondareff // Invision for Mars Chocolate North America // AP Images

For her latest project, the busy star — who is newly engaged to retired accountant Jim Skrip — is again voicing the sassy M&M’s character Ms. Brown for the candy brand’s January re-launch of M&M’s Crispy!

“I started doing the voice for Ms. Brown two years ago for M&M’s, so I think it was a perfect fit and I’m honored they asked me to be a part of the launch,” she told ‘Closer.’

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