'Change Can Be Hard': Ashley Tisdale Admits She Still Struggles To Feel 'Beautiful' In Her Pregnant Body
Though Ashley Tisdale is "proud" of her body as she experiences her first pregnancy, she admitted it's been difficult for her to embrace her new figure.
The actress, who's expecting a girl, opened up about the changes during a photoshoot for her lifestyle website, Frenshe.
"I had the privilege of working with the best team on my maternity shoot," she shared. "This glam squad always knows how to make me feel beautiful, but I have to be honest, I haven’t gotten the whole warm and fuzzy feeling about my pregnant body being beautiful."
"Don’t get me wrong, I am so proud of my body and I’m so grateful to be able to create a home and grow my little one," she continued. "However, seeing my body look so different is still a little startling to me."
The High School Musical alum, who's married to musician Christopher French, explained that seeing her belly grow is "like an out-of-body experience."
"It’s like I don’t fully recognize myself... Thoughts like, 'Is that really me?' come to mind," she confessed. "I think it comes down to body acceptance vs. body love. I think that you can love your body, no matter what shape or form, but it’s the acceptance part that trips me up a little."
Tisdale also revealed she felt body-shamed, as she "popped pretty early" in the pregnancy.
"I had people say, 'I think you’re farther along than you think,' 'Are you having twins?' — all very invasive things," she recalled. "However, I brushed those comments off as I do with any type of criticism."
"I think change can be hard, but I continue each day saying I love you to my body because it’s doing so much, and it’s creating is a beautiful miracle," she noted. "I have to let the ego-mind go and appreciate that my body can even do this. It’s letting go of my own needs because the needs of my baby are more important."
"I don’t know what my body will be like after the baby comes, but I do know I’m going to give it time, let it heal, and take really good care of it," she declared.
"I wanted to share this because I’m sure that like a lot of other people, I felt ashamed that I was uncomfortable at first," she acknowledged. "Yet, it’s important to honor how you feel and understand that everyone has a different experience with pregnancy."
This isn't the first time the blonde beauty has been candid about the struggles of pregnancy, as she revealed a week earlier that she was experiencing plantar fasciitis, a condition that causes stabbing pains in the feet.
"It literally hurts just to walk on my feet," she revealed. "I've never felt pain like this and I'm hoping once the baby is here it lets up."
"I know there could be worse things but for someone who is constantly on their feet it can be pretty unbearable," she explained. "I think she's seven pounds right now and I've never carried that around before and I'm very short, I'm 5'3'', so yeah it's definitely been painful. I'm really hoping it goes away eventually or when she's outside of me."