Why Aidy Bryant is the epitome of body positive #goals

If you’ve watched comedian-actress Aidy Bryant on Saturday Night Live or Girls (not to mention any of her movies), it’s clear that she lights up the screen with her radiant smile and on-point comedic timing.

But it wasn’t always all rainbow emojis for her—Bryant admits in a recent interview with The Cut that she struggled with dieting when she was younger. That is, until something switched.

“I was spending so much energy on something that really, no matter what I did, wasn’t changing,” she reveals. Then she reached a point where, rather than focusing on losing weight, she instead decided to be confident in her own body.

“I finally was like, ‘What if I put all of that energy into just trying to like myself and focus on the things I actually want to do as opposed to this thing that’s like a made-up concept?'” says Bryant. “And I’m not kidding, my entire life changed after I did that.”

“What if I put all of that energy into just trying to like myself and focus on the things I actually want to do?”

Soon after, Bryant wound up at an improv comedy troupe called The Second City, followed by a job offer at the all-coveted SNL at age 25, making her one of the youngest cast members. “I stopped letting it be an all-day, everyday thing that defined everything that I did,” she says of her former mindset. “And it worked.”

Here’s why Chinae Alexander was more confident at 225 pounds than when she lost weight. And these are 15 women discussing what loving your body *really* means.