Ava Philippe is kicking off Pride Month with a moment of reflection. On Saturday, the 24-year-old daughter of Reese Witherspoon It is Ryan Philippe took to Instagram to call out on the first day of the commemorative month, more than two years after first opening up about her sexuality.
“Once upon a time, there was a girl on the internet who said ‘gender is anything’ in reference to her own sexuality,” Ava captioned the photo of her posed in front of a lake, waving a rainbow flag. “Many took her words out of context, but she knew what she meant. Anyway, this is her post for the first day of Pride Month 2024.”
Ava concluded her caption with several emojis featuring a rainbow, stars, a disco ball, and hands forming a heart.
The post references Ava’s previous statements about her sexuality, which the model made in January 2022 while hosting an “Ask Me Anything” on her Instagram Story with her followers.
When a follower asked him, “Do you like boys or girls?” Ava responded that she kept an open mind when it came to romance.
“I’m attracted to… people! (Gender is anything),” she wrote.
At the time, Ava was dating Owen Mahoney. When she encountered backlash for her response, Ava quickly shut down the rude comments.
“Quick reminder. I can and will block profiles that comment bigoted/hateful messages on my posts,” the 22-year-old wrote in a message on her Instagram Stories via AND! News. “My Instagram profile is not a place for cruel/hate speech and I intend to do what I can to keep it that way. Peace and love.”
It was far from the first or last time Ava called out her “haters” on social media. Last month, she took to TikTok to vent about some conflicting and equally offensive comments she had recently received about her physique.
Standing in front of the bathroom mirror, wearing an oversized Blondie t-shirt, Ava picks up a tube of red lipstick as text appears on the screen. The video features a cover version of No Doubt’s 90s hit, “Just a girl.”
“NBD, but I just reached a major milestone as an online woman,” the message read. “I saw two different strangers commenting on my body. The first one said I should join Oz*mpic because I’m too fat… The second one accused me of starving myself because I’m too thin… My weight hasn’t changed in the period of time between their comments (and it wouldn’t be their business If it happened!)”
Then, applying lipstick to her cheek while rolling her eyes, Ava adds, “It’s bullshit.”
The model moves out of the frame while the text continues to play in the video.
“Nobody deserves to be chosen because of their appearance,” he says. “You don’t always know what someone has been through or what they struggle with. But no matter who you are… Your beauty exceeds superficial measurements.”
In her caption, Ava adds, “Beautiful is so beautiful, darling… and body shaming is simply toxic behavior. 💋.”
She also recognizes that body shaming isn’t just limited to women.
“PS: I put ‘woman’ because I see this kind of thing happening disproportionately to girls and women, but let me be clear: body shaming is toxic, no matter who the subject is,” she clarifies. “We all deserve to feel safe and at peace on the ship we live on.”
Ava’s famous mom took to the comments section with a message of support, writing, “Yes to all of this 💋.”
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