Like it or not, children and teens look to celebrities for inspiration on how to look, act and speak and for confirmation that their own appearance is acceptable.
Finding role models or, at least, evidence that people like you can succeed in life is easy for symmetrical youngsters with naturally athletic, slender and light-skinned bodies. But for everyone else, it can be a tricky business, especially when a first qualification for celebrity status is whatever appearance Hollywood's power brokers find most appealing this year.
It helps to remind children that actresses, athletes and artists have personal trainers, private chefs, stylists and makeup artists so they'll be camera-ready whenever they're in the public eye.
But there are some celebrities whose appearance on the covers of magazines and in other media break the too-slim, too-perfect mold. Here are several whose personal triumphs, self-acceptance and decisions to speak out against their industry's standards of beauty and body size can help a parent start a conversation about what matters.
ADELE
This award-winning singer and songwriter isn't skinny. Although other famous folks started out plump and then slimmed down under orders from marketing professionals, Adele seems perfectly comfortable in her skin and shows no sign of changing her looks.
When fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld made a disparaging comment about Adele's weight, she shot back, "I've never wanted to look like models on the cover of magazines. I represent the majority of women and I'm very proud of that."
LUPITA NYONG'O
This Oscar-winning actress had a small but powerful role in 12 Years a Slave, but it was her success on the red carpet in 2014 that made Nyong'o a star. She became a fashion darling in Hollywood, an industry where skin as dark as hers is rarely seen as an asset.
In a speech to the Essence Black Women in Hollywood luncheon in February 2014, she spoke about her childhood prayers that she might wake up one day with lighter skin. Despite her mother's frequent reassurances that she was beautiful, Nyong'o said, she was succumbing to "the seduction of inadequacy" until Oprah Winfrey's celebration of fashion model Alek Wek as beautiful made Nyong'o rethink her own skin.
She said that's when she began to understand what her mother meant when she said, "You can't eat beauty. It doesn't feed you."
"What actually sustains us, what is fundamentally beautiful, is compassion," Nyong'o said, "for yourself and for those around us. That kind of beauty inflames the heart and enchants the soul ...."
She expressed a wish that dark-skinned girls who see her image in media will see her as validation for their exterior appearance and thus be freed to get down to "the deeper business of being beautiful inside. There is no shade in that beauty."
LORDE
The teenage singer-songwriter made a splash with the hit single "Royals," but she has also fired back at the publicity machine that aims to make her picture-perfect, as she did in a tweet about her acne having been Photoshopped out of a picture.
TERRY CREWS
This actor and athlete plays macho characters, and he's certainly in top physical shape. But Crews also is one of the few celebrity men to challenge stereotypes about masculinity. He wrote a book about manhood and identifies himself as a feminist.
LENA DUNHAM
Creator of the hit -- and adult -- HBO series Girls, Dunham initially got lots of press for being naked on-screen ... a lot. Although the press focused on her not-thin figure, Dunham refused to be shamed into covering up.
She remains one of the few female TV leads who isn't rail thin. "I really feel good with my size now," she says. "I know when I say that, people are like, 'mm hmm,' but I just do! It used to be when I went into a room with all thin women I felt like, 'What's wrong with me?' Now I just feel special."
She's not merely an actress, either, she's also a producer and writer.
MINDY KALING
Speaking of TV stars who are writing and producing their own material, Mindy Kaling also breaks the mold by being larger than the average (underweight) TV star and not letting that stop her from being well dressed, writing romantic story lines for her character and speaking out against the pressure in her industry to slim down.
PRINCE FIELDER
The Texas Rangers baseball player posed naked on the cover of ESPN magazine, inciting criticism from folks uncomfortable with his rounded body. His reply? "Just because you're big doesn't mean you can't be an athlete."
ELLEN DEGENERES
Although massively popular talk-show host and comedian Ellen DeGeneres is an example of positive self-image and being yourself despite pressures to conform, she's also been outspoken against companies and people who are prejudiced against people for their size.
MISTY COPELAND
For those outside the ballet world, ballerina Misty Copeland was an unknown until she did an Under Armour commercial, which was viewed more than 4.2 million times after its release in July 2014.
She didn't begin dancing until she was 13 and yet became only the third black soloist for the American Ballet Theatre. Her powerful dancing and muscular physique make her success with breaking barriers in the elite world of professional dance seem a given, but that was not at all the case, as she explains in her autobiography Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina.
MELISSA MCCARTHY
The comedian is famous for her physical humor -- traditionally the territory of the large actor or actress -- but she defies the stereotype by being funny and standing up to mean comments about her weight.
AMY POEHLER
Aside from playing a smart, self-assured leader on the sitcom Parks and Recreation, Amy Poehler also collaborates on an online project called Smart Girls (amysmartgirls.com), answering reader questions about topics ranging from finding courage to feeling good about your body. She's a comedian, actress, author (her book Yes Please was published in 2014) and producer.
GABOUREY SIDIBE
The star of Precious has gone on to roles in American Horror Story and Empire. Simply her presence on TV and the red carpet is a statement that full-figured women can find an audience. "If they hadn't told me I was ugly, I never would have searched for my beauty. And if they hadn't tried to break me down, I wouldn't know that I'm unbreakable," Sidibe said at the Gloria Awards and gala, hosted by the Ms. Foundation for Women.
MEGHAN TRAINOR
Though she's new to the celebrity scene, Trainor's debut song, "All About That Bass," means she's a champion for loving the body your mama gave you (even though we know she's not "bringing booty back" all by herself. That honor goes to J-Lo, Beyonce, Kim Kardashian and Nicki Minaj, thank you very much.).
Celia Storey added information to this report.
Family on 05/20/2015