Being an offspring of a celebrity comes with loads of pressure and for 19-year-old Sy’Rai Smith, daughter of world-famous singer Brandy, the pressure is all shades of real.
The teen during a recent episode of The Real, opened about her recent weight loss and her struggles with body image, saying she compared her body to her famous mother’s before her weight loss, which led to many heartbreaking assumptions.
“Sometimes it was a little bit difficult, you know, seeing my mom dress a certain way or wear a certain thing. Or when she was on [the red] carpet, or I’d see her on set, or anything like that, it was kind of difficult ‘cause it was like, you know, ‘Why am I not that way? Why am I not that size? Why was I made the way I was made?’” Smith recalled. “And sometimes I would feel a little sad, or I would feel like she was embarrassed of me. These were all insecurities in my head and, you know, she was never like that, she was always supportive. She always knew that I was beautiful. She supported whether I wanted to lose a lot of weight or not.”
Smith revealed that she made life-changing lifestyle changes after facing several health challenges, but the journey was not easy. Her motivation to live and the guidance of her family helped her get through it.
“I changed my mindset, changed my mentality and I knew that being in the body that I was in, I knew my life wasn’t going to be as long. I knew I had so many issues with my health and I just knew that living my purpose, I wouldn’t be able to live in that body … so I just really took time and thought to myself I really want to be there for my little sisters, my little brothers, I wanna be there for my mom, my dad [her father is Brandy’s ex-husband, music producer Robert “Big Bert” Smith], and I was like I need to change like now,” she continued.
Smith didn’t hold back on the pressure of the perfect body image often displayed on social media admitting that she too has struggled with trying to attain that “Instagram body” an obsession of which topped up her feelings of insecurity. She also noted that being in the spotlight also heightened those feelings.
“When I look at other women and I know my body’s been through a lot,” Smith said. “And I always have to remind myself of that, you know, all the scars that I have, the stretch marks that I have, everything that my body’s been through, it’s for a purpose, it’s for a reason. … I do feel the pressure. People have their eyes on me at all times, people have their eyes on mom all the time, so I did feel pressured to kind of quickly do it.”
