Any time you put yourself forward or take a risk, you open yourself up to criticism. Lady Gaga just modeled a very positive way of handling the kind of negativity you can get in response.
One of the performer's Super Bowl half-time show costumes showed her belly, and a wave of men on the Internet said, "Ew."
The rock star has now weighed in. And instead of lashing out at critics or questioning herself, she's using the opportunity to reach out to and connect with her fans.
"I heard my body is a topic of conversation so I wanted to say, I'm proud of my body and you should be proud of yours too," she says on Instagram. "You don't need to cater to anyone or anything to succeed."
"Be you, and be relentlessly you," she says. "That's the stuff of champions."
In an impressive feat of leadership, she turned an insult to herself into a way to help hundreds of thousands of fans feel better about themselves.
See also: How Lady Gaga overcame career burnout and came back with a bang
