Kristen Bell Gives The Baby-Weight Rat Race A Big “No Thanks”

So...you know how after a celebrity gives birth, there's all kinds of pressure to show up on a magazine cover looking "perfect"? And, how that's a totally unrealistic expectation for any woman? In a rare but welcome change, Redbook's September cover features a glowing, content Kristen Bell just 11 weeks after giving birth to her daughter, Lincoln — and the cover lines aren't crowing about how she "got her pre-baby body back!"

In the cover story, Bell says she's about fifteen pounds heavier than her pre-pregnancy weight, and you know what? She seems cool with that. "I’m going to continue working out and see where it goes," she tells the magazine. "I’d like to get back down to where I was before the baby… but if this is where my body wants to be, so be it. I’m not going to make myself miserable for the rest of my life trying to get back to where I was before.” Bra-vo.

Bell isn't the only one who's owning up — Jill Herzig, the magazine's editor-in-chief, confesses to the Huffington Post that she, too, has perpetuated the race-to-lose-the-baby-weight frenzy. In a refreshingly candid quote, Herzig writes, "As the editor of Redbook, I'll admit I've sometimes been part of the problem." Kudos to Herzig for stepping up and changing the conversation by putting the real Kristen Bell on the cover.

We're already fans of Bell, but her body acceptance sets the tone for other women, and that makes us like her that much more. We applaud the new standard that Herzig is working to set, too. Here's hoping this becomes a trend. (The Cut).