Beanie Feldstein felt "pressure" to lose weight in her early teens.
Beanie Feldstein thinks society has a 'problem' with weight
The 'Booksmart' actress was always "chubby" and "bigger" than her classmates and followed either Jenny Craig or Weight Watchers diet plans from the ages of 11 to 13, but once she hit her later teen years, she realised it wasn't her with the "problem".
She told America's Vogue magazine: "It was clear to me that I was chubby and that I was bigger, and for a long time, because I was a kid, I would do what the adults were telling me to do, which is to try to not be that way.
“I think I felt a lot of pressure from society, from my family, from my community. Then around 16 or 17, I just thought, ‘I’m fine. There’s nothing wrong with me.’ One day I realised, ‘I’m not the problem. This standard is the problem.’”
Although standards of beauty can be tough in Hollywood, Beanie believes they are even worse in the world of musical theatre.
She said: “I have friends who used to have to ‘weigh in’ for their musical-theatre programmes. That should be illegal.”
The 28-year-old actress can next be seen in the Broadway revival of 'Funny Girl' and she's amazed to have finally landed her dream role of Fanny Bryce.
She said: “The expression ‘lifelong dream’—that statement feels very applicable to me. It still does not feel tangible or real.”
When she was just three years old, Beanie even requested a birthday party themed around the musical.
She recalled: “Other people had Elmo or Little Mermaid balloons. I thought my mom could just go to Party City and buy Barbra Streisand balloons."
Instead, her mom created a tiny version of the leopard-print coat and pillbox hat Barbra wore in the movie, and sent out invitations stating: "Our Funny Girl is turning 3'.