Alana Thompson, a.k.a. Honey Boo Boo, is opening up about feeling confident in her own skin.
“For the most part, I’m very confident in myself and what I wear. I’m kind of just like, ‘Who gives a damn?’” Thompson, 19, exclusively told Us Weekly while promoting Lifetime’s new series I Was Honey Boo Boo. “A lot of people look at bigger girls and they’re like, ‘Oh, they’re not healthy.’ But I feel like healthy bodies come in all different shapes and sizes. I’m completely healthy. I may be a little bit bigger, but I’m completely healthy.”
Thompson rose to fame when she starred on Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, which aired on TLC from 2012 to 2017. The series followed the child beauty pageant contestant and her family, including mom June “Mama June” Shannon — who stars in the WeTV spinoff series, Mama June: From Not to Hot. The show began airing in 2017, with season 7 set to premiere on May 30.
Thompson — whose mom underwent a full body transformation, including a 2015 gastric sleeve — noted that the show contributed to her own body image issues.
“That was just mainly because my mom was going from not to hot,” Thompson explained to Us. “She was a bigger girl and I’ve always been a bigger girl myself too. And just to see my mom go from 300 pounds to 100 pounds was a shock to me just because it’s like, ‘Am I going to have to do that one day because I’m a bigger girl? [Are] people not going to love me until I get surgery or I’m this thin pretty little girl?’”
She continued, “So it was very hard on me, but after a while I noticed that either way my mom was still getting shown love, so I was like, I mean she’s still getting shown love.”
While Thompson admitted it was “definitely hard” to reminisce on her past for new series I Was Honey Boo Boo, she shared it was “empowering” to see her journey — and hopes viewers gain a deeper understanding of her story through the Lifetime biopic.
“Everybody thinks they know me in a way that they actually don’t,” Thompson said. “So I thought now would just be a perfect time to just tell my story and my voice and I think it’s going to be great.”
I Was Honey Boo Boo premieres on Lifetime Saturday, May 17, at 8 p.m. ET.
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