Queen Latifah's response to being told to ''lose weight'' while starring on Living Single is perfect

Hollywood is often called Hollyweird for various. The industry’s beauty standards are always changing, and they often hurt women’s self-esteem. In the '90s, the "perfect" woman was expected to be young, thin, have clear skin, straight teeth, and more. If you didn’t fit that image, it was tough to get on camera.

That’s why shows like Living Single mattered then and still matter now. The sitcom had an all-Black cast with four leading women who looked like the people watching at home. They were beautiful, smart, and talented, but didn’t fit the so-called perfect mold. Queen Latifah, who played Khadijah James, once shared that the women were asked to lose weight, but she stood her ground and believed there was nothing wrong with how they looked.

"At one point, we were approached while doing Living Single, and I was probably 24. We had the No. 1 show among Black and Latino households, and we were told that the word came down that they wanted us to lose weight," Latifah told REVOLT in 2025. "And my instant reaction to that was absolutely not. I'm not losing a pound. Are you crazy? Like, what are you talking about?"

She continued, "We look like what real women look like. We are representing what four women from Brooklyn look like. And we all look different from one to the next. We have such a successful show, we’re doing all the right things, and this is the one thing that you actually have to say, and you don't even know what you're talking about. Maybe you should go take a trip to Brooklyn over the summer and see what people from Brooklyn actually look like. That’s the way I felt at that time."

In the article, Queen Latifah also talks about health, why it matters, and the importance of doctor visits.