‘I was just trying to be myself without trying to fit into a mould of what everyone should be,’ Lopez says

Jennifer Lopez has hailed what she believes to be the steady changing of attitudes towards beauty standards in the entertainment industry, revealing that she has been subject to body shaming throughout her career.

Lopez told fans at a recent event how she was regularly told to lose weight by people in the industry in the past, including her own former manager.

“They kept telling me to lose weight, and I was a dancer and I was athletic and even my manager at the time, who I no longer work with, was telling me: ‘You need to lose weight, You need to be thinner,’ Lopez told the audience at an event for her television series Shades of Blue on Thursday, according to E! News. “I was like, ‘No I don’t. If I lose any more weight it won’t be me’.”

The 46-year old said she believes the entertainment industry has now adopted a more inclusive approach when it comes to beauty standards and body types after what she says was initially a “fight”. She also thanked a fan who credited the singer with inspiring her to feel more comfortable in her own body.

“It was a fight. It was definitely a fight, and so it’s good to hear that it helped anybody in some way because, at the end of the day, I was just trying to be myself without trying to fit into a mould of what everyone else should be.

“It’s a different time now you know, which is awesome for me where it is about our differences. It’s about all the diversity,” she said. “It’s just a more accepting time of everything whether it’s body type or race or gender. We’ve come a long way,” she said.

Dame Helen Mirren recently credited Lopez and Kim Kardashian for being role models for a different type of body shape and re-defining ideals of female beauty.

“I’m not into the Kardashians, it’s a phenomenon I just don’t find interesting, but – and this is the word B-U-T-T – it’s wonderful that you’re allowed to have a butt nowadays. Thanks to Madame Kardashian, and before her, J-Lo.” she told The Sunday Telegraph magazine. “We’re also allowed to have thighs now, which is great too. It’s very positive.”