It’s officially been 25 years since Christina Aguilera’s debut single “Genie In The Bottle” hit radio stations and became one of the biggest earworms of 1999 and the Y2K era (which is all the rage with celebs like Jessica Biel these days). Along with continuing to be a massive global pop star, Aguilera is also now a 43-year-old mother of two who has gained perspective on what it’s like to have a lot of eyeballs and opinions about her and her body.
When Aguilera first landed on the scene with her debut album, she was an 18-year-old who became known for wearing midriff-baring crop tops and low rise jeans that we saw all over the best 2000s movies about teens. As her body changed with time (which is completely normal) in front of the world, she recalls dealing with backlash. As she recently shared with Glamour:
When you’re a teenager, you have a very different body than when you’re in your 20s. I started to fill out, and then that was unacceptable because it was like, ‘Oh, she’s getting thicker.’ Then I had industry people: ‘They liked your body and how you were as a skinny teenager.’
Unfortunately for the 2000s, if you were to look back inside the pages of tabloids, you’d see stories measuring a size 6 as “fat” or commenting on the cellulite of young stars like Lindsay Lohan, Hilary Duff, and Jessica Simpson. Nowadays those stars are owning their body for how they are. Duff for instance posed nude on Women’s Health in 2022 and proclaimed how “proud” she is of her body and the peace she’s found after having three kids.
For some reason it was culturally acceptable to comment on women’s bodies in this fashion and it was incredibly harmful to a generation of women. In recent years, more of us have been reflecting on that time, often by showing examples in popular movies.
Remember when 2001’s Bridget Jones Diary lamented about being overweight for her 136 pound figure? Or when Anne Hathaway’s character was considered fat by numerous colleagues in The Devil Wears Prada. Yeah, that’s where we were. Previously, Aguilera recalled actually hating being “super skinny” in her early pop star years and being happy to fill out in her 20s even though she has her critics because of normal body shifts. Here’s how she said she handles other’s thoughts on her weight these days:
I have a maturity now where I just don’t give a fuck about your opinion. I’m not going to take it on. It must be your responsibility to take up your space. Other people’s opinions of me are not my business.
Christina Aguilera marked turning 40 in 2020 with her middle fingers up, and the singer is continuing to emulate an unbothered approach to public perception of her. In the interview, the singer also spoke about making this moment of her life about existing as “a human first before being a celebrity.” Aguilera is currently placing her main focus on her two kids, who are 16 and 10. As her children are reaching the years when she became a Mickey Mouse Club member before transitioning to pop icon, she commented on parenthood feeling like “reliving this whole thing again.”
While her home life is her top priority, Aguilera also teased her first English-language album in over six years (her last was the 2022 Spanish-language record Aguilera) is on the way. We love this empowering place the pop star has reached in her life and we can’t wait to hear the songs she’s making to go with this moment in her life.
