Source: Prince Williams / Getty
It’s no secret that we live in a fatphobic world. And when it comes to the entertainment industry, the problem is far more exaggerated. The biggest perpetrator of one-size, shade and type of beauty is the media.
So it was increasingly difficult for people with darker complected, heavier bodies to break through.
We shared a story like that speaking about Kelly Price’s experiences in the recording industry back in the nineties.
And while you might have assumed that things have gotten better since then and that the industry would be a bit more gracious to the people who are singing to the Lord, that was not the experience of gospel singer Kierra Sheard.
Recently, during an interview with Page Six, Sheard shared an experience that almost caused her to leave the music industry all together.
“I think the year was 2004. I was like a sophomore or junior in high school, and I used to be over 300 pounds. I remember I was trying to get signed to this record label; they basically said I looked like the Pillsbury doughboy and I shouldn’t shoot full-body images. So every time they encouraged me to do shoots from the waist up.”
Sadly, that wasn’t the last time, words were used to attack her body. She said when she auditioned for a Broadway show, she was also met with words she didn’t even bother to repeat.
Sheard simply said the comments were “really hard, deep words—like they wanted to leave me broken…They did not care about my feelings or me being a human…It’s been over 15 years and the words still haunt me.”
Her struggles with the industry weren’t the only ones Sheard faced though.
In another interview with Page Six, she shared that she was in a relationship so toxic, it could have aired on Bravo.
“I kept being cheated on, and I think I was most affected because I was so intimately involved. I was giving so much to a boyfriend expecting him to be as loyal to me as I was to him. I mean, you talk about reality TV? If I had a reality show, I would have so much drama for you to watch every week. I was cussing, cutting, I was pulling up. I remember I followed my boyfriend, and he got out somewhere, and I tried to run him over with my car.”
Eventually, her family stepped in with some advice that helped change her perspective on things.
“They told me I need to get involved with people who have just as much to lose as I do . . . I can’t let no man’s private parts drive me up a wall to where I lose everything just for that emotional connection to them.”
Thankfully, she’s moved on and hopefully won’t have to experience that type of trauma and turmoil with her soon-to-be husband Jordan Kelly.
