The Stanley Cup playoffs are on, and we all know what that means: it’s Carrie Underwood hockey selfie season. This year the country singer’s first post-season snap in support of husband Mike Fisher is doubly meaningful, offering fans the closest look yet at how well she’s healed from a painful fall in November.
Underwood’s injuries included a broken wrist and some nasty facial trauma requiring over 40 stitches. “When I am ready to get in front of a camera, I want you all to understand why I might look a bit different,” she warned in a fan club post earlier this year. But while the scars are visible in the new selfie, Underwood’s look is totally familiar to those of us who have been watching her videos for years.
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Underwood has been candid about coming to grips with the changes to her face."For a while, I was worried [my son] would be scared of me," she said in an interview with iHeartRadio's The Bobby Bones Show podcast. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be done talking about it, because it was an event in my life."
Although the singer has kept her distance on social media since the accident — Underwood’s Instagram has been noticeably shy of close-ups for the last several months — she hasn’t exactly been in hiding. Over the last few months she’s performed at the Academy of Country Music Awards, released a new music video and opened up about the emotional impact of her injuries in a song appropriately titled “Cry Pretty.”
Recovery from any trauma is a private matter, and we’re glad that Underwood has kept control over the process. We’re also glad that she’s finally ready to step back in front of the camera — especially as the entertainment industry seems to be turning away from outdated beauty standards. This year we’ve seen Lady Bird star Saoirse Ronan show her acne on-screen, and Amy Schumer’s latest flick I Feel Pretty defy the traditional movie makeover storyline. By stepping out with her scars on display, Underwood is helping to inspire women to find confidence in features the industry might have once considered flaws.
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