How Having a Baby Helped ‘Encanto' Star Stephanie Beatriz Learn to Love Her Body

The "Encanto" actor spoke with TODAY about the best gift her 7-month-old daughter has given her

Stephanie Beatriz
ABC via Getty Images

Stephanie Beatriz is on a journey of self-love. The “Encanto” actor is appreciating her own body and loving herself more after welcoming her first child, daughter Rosaline, in August.

The “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” star had quite the Oscars Sunday, presenting Sebastián Yatra’s performance of “Dos Oruguitas,” as well as performing “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” with her fellow castmates, Becky G, Luis Fonsi and surprise guest Megan Thee Stallion.

“It’s pretty dope but I miss my daughter, I will say,” she told TODAY at the 2022 Vanity Fair Oscar party in Beverly Hills after the ceremony. “It’s been quite a few hours away from her and it’s hard.”

While it was date night for Beatriz, 41, and husband Brad Hoss, the new mom got candid about motherhood, expressing that it brings new surprises every day.

“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.”

Beatriz added that this new mindset “was truly” the gift that her daughter gave her.

“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 bulls—, like so many of us are,” she continued. “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.”

The actor said that “to be able to model it” she also has to put that into practice. “So I’m on the journey of learning that.”

She echoed similar sentiments in an interview with Cosmopolitan that same night, sharing why she’s decided to stop being “cruel” to herself.  

“Going to fun awards shows and celebrations about our field is also encased in a backdrop of being a new mom, and for me at least, part of that has really been accepting who I am and the body that I’m inhabiting at this moment in time,” she noted. “I’m not trying to be anybody’s idea of who I’m supposed to be. I’m just trying to be my best self at this moment.”

Megan Thee Stallion shocked viewers with an epic remix of the hit song "We Don't Talk About Bruno" at the 2022 Oscars, and she admitted to Access Hollywood's Zuri Hall that she was a bit nervous about the performance.

Beatriz noted that bodies will change and fluctuate throughout one's life, “And so why not take the time to be present in this moment and celebrate the body that I have now, versus being cruel to myself.”

Beatriz said she couldn’t have been happier to celebrate “Encanto” and the film's big night at the Academy Awards.

“It’s really amazing to have won best animated feature and the fact that maybe people have heard of it, maybe they haven’t taken the time to watch it, but that’s what the Academy Awards do so well,” she told Cosmopolitan. “They shine the light on projects that other people then say to themselves, ‘Well, I got a busy life. I’ve got kids, I’ve got a job. I’m going to sit down and take the time to watch this film because the academy says it’s worth my time.”

“And that’s a really big deal and it carries a lot of weight, especially in the United States, but I think globally,” she shared, adding, “It’s a true honor to be part of a film that won an academy award.”

This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY: 

Copyright Today Digital Originals
Contact Us