Model and actress Emily Ratajkowski calls the comments she gets on Instagram “insane,” including mean words about her “unique” bellybutton. The 28-year-old, who has her own swimwear line, Inamorata, tells TODAY Style how she’s learned to ignore the trolls.
I love my bellybutton because it's very unique. It's sort of a half-innie-outie. I got made fun of for it in elementary school, so it was a long road to loving my bellybutton.
I remember being very triggered hearing that "it looks like a peace sign" when I was, like, 7 years old. Or I would hear, "Oh, what happened to your mom when she had you," or "What went wrong when you were born that you have such a weird bellybutton." And now I kind of love those comments; I like to poke fun at myself for it.
As a swim model with my own swim line, the bellybutton's out a lot (in my photos). And I get so many comments. I'm sure on every picture where you can see my bellybutton on Instagram, there's probably at least five bellybutton comments. But, like, my bellybutton? That's just such a funny thing to even think about; we can't take it too seriously.
The comments I get on Instagram are insane. I get all kinds of body-shaming comments. They criticize everything about me and in every direction. It's like too skinny, too fat, too short, too tall, ribs stick out, lips are too big, nose is weird, whatever. I just really have learned to ignore them, but it's not easy.
I think it's important that women choose: if they want to be sexy, if they don't want to be sexy, if they're feeling themselves, if they're trying to feel themselves through covering up or not — that's up to them. It's their choice, and more power to them.
I was actually just on vacation with four girlfriends, and we all have crazy different bodies. We have size 8, we have a size 0, we have everything in between, and they were all wearing my swim line, Inamorata.
And that's super important to me, because they all looked sexy and felt good. And I think the idea that there's some kind of perfect, it sort of goes back to the comments we were just talking about. There's no ideal. There's no perfect. There's just you and you have to learn to love yourself, and everyone will love you for it.
Just learn to love yourself, because the rest of the world is not going to make you feel that way until you learn to do it inside.
As told to TODAY's Emily Sher. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.