Stephanie Beatriz shares powerful words on body acceptance all moms of daughters should hear

The journey of self-love and body acceptance is usually a lifelong journey for everyone, particularly for women. On the Oscars red carpet, Encanto‘s Stephanie Beatriz shared how her daughter has helped her on her own journey—and it’s something all mamas should hear, especially if you have a daughter.

Stephanie Beatriz, who voices the character of Mirabel in Disney’s latest hit movie, attended the Oscars to both perform and present. When a TODAY correspondent asked her about life as a new mama (Beatriz welcomed daughter Rosaline in August), she admitted that even though it was technically a “date night” for her and her husband, Brad Hoss, she missed her little girl.

Related: Stephanie Beatriz recorded an ‘Encanto’ song while in actual LABOR—no biggie

“It’s pretty dope but I miss my daughter, I will say,” she said. “It’s been quite a few hours away from her and it’s hard.”

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And it was the topic of her daughter that prompted Beatriz to get candid about motherhood and how it’s changed her for the better, especially when it comes to her relationship with her body.

“But honestly, I think it’s the way it’s made me understand myself and my relationship with my body,” she explained. “Because I think a lot of women struggle with body dysmorphia, eating disorders, disordered eating. And I think weirdly having a kid made me go, ‘Oh, what do I want this person to know about their body?’ So it made me really appreciate my own body, myself, much more.”

There are probably many mothers out there who can relate to this raw, powerful statement. Because you can go your whole life—through childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood—thinking about your body one way, and being openly critical of the way it looks and feels. And then you become a mother, and you realize that a tiny little human is going to absorb everything you say about yourself. They’re going to watch the way you treat yourself. They’re going to take those things they see and hear, and they’re going to turn all of it inward in how they view themselves.

Related: Diet culture deeply impacts kids of all ages: 5 ways parents can break the cycle

It’s a great responsibility, learning how to love yourself. For you, yes. But also for those tiny little humans. There are also many of us who likely remember how our own mothers talked about themselves. I remember all of the diet food, Slim-Fast shakes, criticisms, anti-fatness and vanity my own mother displayed all too well. I know the struggle of unlearning all of that. But I also know that I have two daughters who deserve to feel secure and happy with their bodies—and that starts with me.

Stephanie Beatriz put it perfectly in her next comment, and it’s truly something we all need to hear so we can remind ourselves why we’re on this journey of self-love and body acceptance.

“Truly the gift she gave me was loving myself a lot more because I want her to love herself. I don’t want her to get caught up in all the other b.s. like so many of us are,” she said. “I want her to feel like she is above it or at least feel like it doesn’t matter what people say because I know my own worth.”

She said she knows that in order for her daughter to feel positively about herself, she’s going to look to her mama for guidance.

“We have to learn that to be able to model it,” Beatriz says. “So I’m on the journey of learning that.”

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