Fans everywhere have been delighted by Shannen Doherty’s essential body-positive message. Last Sunday the Beverly Hills 90210 star posted a makeup-free selfie together with a reflective caption about watching movies and noticing that there were “few female characters” she could relate to.
“You know, women without fillers, without Botox, without a facelift. Women who embraced their face and all the experience it showed,” she wrote.
Doherty then proceeded to make a point about beauty standards: “I have lived. I love that I’ve lived and that my face reflects my life. I survived a lot yes cancer but more than that. I embrace me now. Finally. Done with the perception magazines and Hollywood try to make us in to. I want to see women like me. Women like us.”
Fans of the star then flooded the comment section to share their support of the 50-year-old actress’s empowering words, reported Good Housekeeping.
“Yes!!! Shannen!! Well said! You’re one of the realists!! Do you! Embrace authenticity and originality and be natural. we love you!” one fan wrote. “You’re amazing. perfect words,” someone else said.
At the same time, some of Doherty’s fellow celebrity friends also seemed to get on board with her caption. “Just thinking [of the] time I fixed my face. Hahahah. I got the same adult face as you. Hard to sit in my hands. Haha. Love you beautiful,” Selma Blair wrote. Handmaid’s Tale director Reed Morano noted, “You are beautiful and I love this.”
This is not the first time Doherty shared an open and honest Instagram post. The star received her initial breast cancer diagnosis in 2015. In 2017, she shared that she was in remission but then in February of 2020, her cancer returned and is stage four.
“I don’t think I’ve processed it. It’s a bitter pill to swallow in a lot of ways,” Doherty told ABC News‘s Amy Robach.
In October 2020, Doherty sat down with her friend and fellow actress Sarah Michelle Gellar and touched on how she was doing since receiving the news.
“I love it when people say, ‘we’re praying for you,’ and everything else, but there comes a point when you’re like, ‘I got this. I’m fine. I’m good,'” she told Entertainment Tonight at the time. “There are a lot of people in the world who could use prayers, and I’m feeling great. I have an amazing medical team behind me and —”
“And you can lap me at an exercise class,” Gellar added.
“I have a few okay friends and stuff,” Doherty continued. “I’m doing okay. I’m doing better than okay. I’m doing well. I feel strong and healthy and confident and happy.”/TISG