Jameela Jamil hits out at ‘hard to watch’ trend: ‘I would rather leave this industry’

Jameela Jamil has lashed out at a trend she says has been “hard to watch” developing over the past year.

The actor, presenter and activist, 38, is a vocal campaigner against body-shaming and has been open about her own struggles with eating disorders.

In a candid post to her 3.8 million Instagram followers on Boxing Day (26 December), Jamil said she had observed a number of people in her industry taking Ozempic to lose weight despite, she believed, not really needing it.

“The amount of people in my industry just taking [Ozempic] to go from slim to super skinny, to finally achieve the obedient waif physique to fit the obedient sample sizes… has been hard to watch,” she wrote.

“Especially for those of us who have fought off eating disorders. Who are they really doing it for?”

Jamil shared a photo of herself at “the height” of her anorexia struggles in which she said she had been pretending to eat a chocolate, “pretending to be happy” and “pretending not to be on the verge of fainting”.

In the second photo, the Good Place star appeared relaxed and happy as she posed in a swimsuit – in recovery from her eating disorder – while a third slide showed a video of her eating what appeared to be a slice of pizza while dancing in the sea.

She captioned the video: “May I have the strength through this era of Ozempic heroin chic, in my industry to keep up this good work I did on my brain throughout 2025. I would rather leave this industry than get dragged back.”

“Heroin chic” was a prevalent and controversial beauty trend of the Nineties, in which fashion and the media were populated by images of ultra-skinny women such as Kate Moss.

Jamil has previously hit out at media attempts to claim a resurgence of the trend, including in 2022 when she hit out at a headline that said: “Bye-bye booty… heroin chic is back.”

“I plan on sitting out this cycle,” Jamil continued in her Instagram post caption. “Curves will come back. They always do. Then they will go away again. Then come back. I’m not playing with my brain, my heart, my bone density, or my metabolism for a trend. You can’t be left behind in a LOOP.”

She concluded: “WHAT ARE WE TEACHING THE KIDS?!”

Jamil opened up about the longterm impact of her eating disorder earlier this year, as she told TV host Kelly Ripa that she used to take “any pill or drink or diet that Oprah recommended” in an effort to lose weight.

“I f***ed up my kidney, my liver, my digestive system, my heart,” she said. “And most recently, I found out that I have destroyed my bone density.”

“I’m amazed I even still have an a**hole, to be perfectly honest,” she quipped about her former habit of taking laxatives. “It’s a real trooper. It’s a survivor. I took any pill or drink or diet that Oprah recommended. I did it. I took it. You know, any very low-calorie supermodel diet.”

For anyone struggling with the issues raised in this article, eating disorder charity Beat’s helpline is available 365 days a year on 0808 801 0677. NCFED offers information, resources and counselling for those suffering from eating disorders, as well as their support networks. Visit eating-disorders.org.uk or call 0845 838 2040