Jessica Simpson is looking back at the body-image pressure she faced as a teenage pop singer, including a demand she says came when she was 17 and weighed 115 pounds.
During a June 11 concert in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Simpson told the crowd that early pop stardom came with expectations that went far beyond singing. Us Weekly reported that Simpson said she was told to lose 15 pounds while her label was trying to position her in the same pop landscape as Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera.
Simpson said she believed she had been signed because of her voice, then found herself being pushed toward a body and image other people thought would make her more marketable. She told the audience that being asked to lose weight at 17 was “a lot.”
The comments came during Simpson’s return to live performance after years away from the stage. She released Nashville Canyon, Pt. 1 in 2025, her first major project of original music in 15 years, and has described the new music as part of a personal and creative reset.
Simpson Said She Was Measured Against Other Young Pop Stars
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Simpson told the Pennsylvania audience that the pressure started as her label tried to shape her into the kind of late-1990s pop star already represented by Spears and Aguilera. “We love them, we support them,” she said, according to Us Weekly, before explaining that she felt expected to follow in their footsteps.
She said the demand to lose 15 pounds came even though she weighed 115 pounds at the time. Simpson told the crowd that the message left her feeling as if her voice was not enough, even though that was the reason she thought she had been signed.
The Pressure Continued With Irresistible
Simpson said the expectations did not stop with her debut era. When she was preparing her second album, Irresistible, she said she was told she needed to have a six-pack.
Her response onstage was direct: that was “definitely not going to happen” because she was not built that way. Us Weekly reported that Simpson told the crowd there were “all these things” she was expected to be in order to fit the version of Jessica Simpson that other people believed would be successful.
“I always felt like a failure, like, I was never good enough,” Simpson said, according to Us Weekly.
She Has Spoken About Body Image for Years
Simpson’s comments fit into a longer public conversation about how her body was discussed during her early fame, her reality-TV years, her pregnancies, and her later business career. Page Six reported that Simpson has said the pressure to meet an unrealistic body standard followed her for years.
In 2021, Simpson told People that she had spent years “beating myself up” over an unrealistic standard that made her feel like a failure. She said at the time that she was still a work in progress with self-criticism, but had learned to quiet some of those voices.
Nashville Canyon Brought Her Back to the Stage
Simpson returned to live performance in March 2025 at a Recording Academy event during SXSW, where she performed new songs including “Breadcrumbs,” “Blame Me,” “Use My Heart Against Me,” and “Leave.” People reported that it was her first performance in 15 years.
Apple Music describes Nashville Canyon, Pt. 1 as a project that took Simpson away from the label-driven pop formulas of her earlier career. The EP was also tied to a personal transition after her separation from Eric Johnson, with Simpson using new music to return to the part of her career that first brought her to the public.
She Says the Stage Feels Like Home Again
Simpson has continued to frame the new performances as more than a nostalgic return. In a June 8 Instagram post covered by People, she wrote that she was not able to “fully express” herself during the 15 years she did not perform and said her fans had helped remind her where she belonged.
Now 45, Simpson is telling the old stories from the stage instead of letting them sit only in interviews or tabloid archives.