Raven Symone Discusses Pressures She Felt to Conform to Beauty Standards as Young Star in Hollywood

During the December 5 episode of her Tea Time with Raven & Miranda podcast, which she co-hosts with her wife, Miranda Pearman-Maday, the That’s So Raven alum recalled having her first breast reduction when she was just 15 years old.

“I had my first breast reduction at 15,” Raven shared. “I went from a triple D all the way down to a B,” noting that “someone said I needed to do it in order to get a show.”

Raven, who starred on the Disney Channel show from 2003 to 2007, said that the breast reduction led to her getting liposuction as well after she was criticized over her weight.

“At the same time I was like, ‘If you’re gonna take my boobs out, I want a lipo,'” she continued.

While Raven said a lot of the pressure to change her appearance came from the adults around her at the time, she also said she felt sexualized by the young male viewers who watched That’s So Raven.

“I felt like boys watched the show because I had big boobs,” Raven added. “I feel like that was the case. They came for the boobs and stayed for the comedy.”

Now at age 38, the comedian says she’s embraced more body positivity, telling listeners, “There’s this beautiful embracing of the body now that I didn’t get as a young girl.”

Elsewhere in the episode, Raven got candid about the “anchor scar” she got as a result of her breast reduction surgeries.

“When you have a breast reduction, underneath the areola they make a little incision, and they come down straight underneath the boob and, like, filet you from the bottom, and it looks like an anchor,” she explained.

Raven previously opened up about the surgery on an episode of the podcast last year, calling it a “mess.”

“It was just a mess, just being that young and ugh, the pain of it all,” Raven recalled before sharing the painful recovery process, adding that she had “to go back” for a second breast reduction because her breasts were “still too big” after she “gained weight.”

The Cheetah Girls star also revealed she had a seizure after her first breast reduction surgery.

“I remember waking up and seeing everything … and then I just started to have this dry mouth and couldn’t breathe and went back under,” she said, adding that the memory of the seizure still “freaks her out a bit.”

While she urged other teenagers who are considering plastic surgery to wait until they have reached puberty, Raven said she doesn’t really “regret” getting her breast reduction surgeries.

“I don’t know if I regret it because they grew back … not to that big of a size,” she explained. “If I didn’t have it and they grew, the way grew now, would my titties hang to my ankles? Did I prevent double Z’s from happening rather than sitting in a nice double D cup right now?”