Annaleigh Ashford: 'Everyone Carries Their Strength Somewhere Different'
I grew up dancing, so I was constantly looking at my body in the mirror. Not only was I trying to fix what didn’t look right in the physical forms I was making in each routine, but I was also forced to look at what I liked and didn’t like about my body. There’s something about being in a leotard and tights, standing in a room of 20 young women between the ages of 10 and 15, that makes you realize everybody has a completely different shape. I carry my strength in my legs and my booty; others carry it in their arms. Everyone carries their strength somewhere different.
You have to learn to love and accept it, and dance helped me do that—as did my mom. She’s an athlete and an elementary school gym teacher, and she considered muscles and strength a sign of beauty when others didn’t. She encouraged me to try different sports and activities, including track. Turns out, I hated running. But after my last race, she signed me up for dance.
Obviously, I struggle from time to time with body image. But I made a choice in that dance studio to love my body. What I appreciate most about it is its resilience. When I gave birth to my son five years ago, that’s when I really learned to see my body for how gifted and miraculous it truly is. It’s just amazing how malleable the body—the female body, specifically—is.
Now, after having my son and watching my body heal from celiac disease (plus injuries over the years), I just want to say "thank you" to it a lot more than I used to.
With everything in life, I strive to carry the torch for the women who came before me. My mom and my grandma both struggled their whole life to fight back against the way society told them their body should be. I just hope to make them proud by loving the body I see reflected in the mirror a little more than they were allowed to love theirs.
This article originally appeared in the May/June 2022 issue of Women’s Health.
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