This week, the Wicked mega-star Ariana Grande announced she’ll be taking a step back from public life, following backlash to the dramatic weight loss visible in her new music video.

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As is too often the case with teen stardom, Grande has been subject to an unhealthy public obsession with her body for her entire adult life - but the world's obsession with thinness is certainly not confined to her.

Plenty of starlets have received that confusing mix of scorn and admiration for their protruding shoulder bones and visible ribs, and Grande is just the latest - so as she joins the ranks of those much scorned starlets, is it any wonder the conversation around weight loss continues to be so fractured and hostile? We’ve denied scientists the conversational reins around wellness, and handed them to celebrities instead. We’ve conflated their wealth with our health, so beauty and status have become associated with extreme thinness - and it leaves the most vulnerable among us in the lurch.

As a reasonably healthy woman in........

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