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THere's something so undeniable about the “pregnancy glow” that a woman feels when she's pregnant. Her skin is so radiant and her hair is so shiny that it's almost impossible not to notice. But what if that pregnancy glow isn't a glow at all, but just a poorly lit photo, the way a dress sits on her body, or an underlying health issue?
Hailey Bieber and Vanessa Hudgens recently had to deny speculation that they were pregnant. It wasn't the first time for the 26-year-old model that she had to deny pregnancy rumors. Hailey, who has been married to Justin Bieber since 2018, told GQ Hype in October that it's “disheartening” when her fans constantly ask her if she's pregnant – especially since she's previously spoken openly about her ovarian cyst.
As for Vanessa, she responded bluntly when asked by fans if she was expecting her first child with fiancé Cole Tucker. The High School Musical alum shared a video from her bachelorette party in Aspen, Colorado, in which she was seen wearing oversized hoodies, fur jackets, button-downs, and a loose-fitting slip dress, and quickly received a flood of invasive comments.
“Why does she look pregnant to me or like she's trying to hide a bump?” one viewer asked, while another asked: “Are we pregnant?” Vanessa simply wrote back, accompanied by an eye roll emoji: ” Not pregnant, so you all can stop.”
It seems that social media has encouraged us to inquire about our favorite celebrities' personal medical information. Of course, it's the nature of platforms like Instagram and TikTok to make famous people seem more likeable to us and make us privy to the goings-on of their everyday lives. In turn, we develop a connection with our ever-growing list of “followers,” sometimes forming what are known as parasocial relationships – when one side of the party becomes emotionally attached to a person, while the other party most likely doesn’t even know that the other exists.
Although these one-sided, essentially imaginary relationships we have with celebrities have existed long before the invention of apps like Twitter, the rise of social media has blurred the boundaries of how we interact with celebrities — including whether or not they're pregnant .
Dr. Jolene Brighten is a board-certified naturopathic endocrinologist who specializes in integrative hormone treatment for women. “What everyone needs to realize, whether you're friends or not, is that when you make assumptions like that and don't really know what's going on in someone's life, you end up with this judgment and the shame that can come with it .” . “They make assumptions about a person’s body and don’t know the whole story,” said Dr. Brighten told The Independent. “On the one hand, they could be struggling with chronic illnesses. On the other hand, it could also be that for some reason you are unable to conceive on your own, or perhaps you suspect that the pregnancy is actually a miscarriage. I think it’s really important that we always take a step back and remember that we don’t know the whole story.”
In November last year, Hailey Bieber revealed that she had an ovarian cyst “the size of an apple” and shared a photo of her stomach with a noticeable bump – although “not a baby bump,” she clarified. “I have an apple-sized cyst on my ovary,” she wrote. “I don’t have endometriosis or PCOS [polycystic ovary syndrome] But I’ve gotten an ovarian cyst a few times and it’s never fun.”
“It is painful and makes me feel nauseous, bloated, cramping and emotional. “Anyway…I'm sure many of you can relate and understand,” Hailey said. “We have that.”
A screenshot from Hailey Bieber's Instagram Stories
(Hailey Bieber/Instagram)
The Rhode Beauty founder began spreading pregnancy rumors back in 2020 when she called Us Weekly because she was reportedly planning on publishing a story about her expecting a baby. “So please stop writing false stories from your 'sources' and focus on what's important, which is the election,” she wrote on her Instagram Story at the time.
Then, in April 2022, Radar Online reported that Hailey's “flowing dress” at the Grammys had “convinced” fans that she was expecting. In the comments, she shut down the claim, writing, “I'm not pregnant, leave me alone.”
Last July, fans once again believed that a Bieber baby was on the way when a leaked photo of Hailey surfaced, in which the model wore a cropped black top and held her stomach. Speaking to GQ Hype, she called the pregnancy speculation “disheartening” but claimed that “when the day comes” that she is pregnant, “you, like the internet, will be the last to know.”
Last month, Kourtney Kardashian gave birth to her fourth child – her first with husband Travis Barker. She's been talking about her fertility journey on The Kardashians for almost two years. In the first season, the 44-year-old Poosh founder described how the drugs given to her as part of her in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment sent her “literally into menopause.”
Although it wasn't necessary, the reality TV star decided to be open with her fans about her IVF treatment. Perhaps that's why it was so disturbing when she was forced to respond to body-shaming comments on her Instagram last September. “Wait, I missed the fact that she's pregnant,” one user commented under a photo of Kourtney posing in lingerie. “No, but you are missing a woman’s body,” she replied.
Just five months later, Kourtney once again dismissed the pregnancy speculation by opening up about the effects of IVF treatment on her body. In the now-deleted Instagram slideshow, she wore an all-yellow cropped cardigan and high-waisted pants while posing with the latest product from her vitamin brand Lemme. When an Instagram user asked in the comments section, “Is she pregnant,” Kourtney explained that the recent changes to her appearance were merely “aftereffects.” [sic] the IVF”.
“I'm just noting this comment because I think it's important to know how IVF affects women's bodies and it's not talked about much,” she added. “Plus, we still ask women, are you pregnant?”
According to Dr. Dr Kerry-Anne Perkins, a board-certified gynecologist with 1.1 million followers on TikTok who spoke to The Independent, says infertility problems affect one in seven couples. However, it is usually women who take on the burden of infertility in a relationship. In fact, women struggling with infertility show higher levels of anxiety and depression compared to men.
“Infertility itself is a risk factor for depression and mood swings,” said Dr. Brighten. “When people start making these speculations, when people start making comments about your reproductive health, it can become something that can be so overwhelming that people's spirits can really drop.”
Not only does constant pregnancy speculation negatively impact the mental health of those undergoing fertility treatments, but such invasive questions are sure to make anyone question their own body image or life choices – even those who are not undergoing IVF .
“There is a lot of social pressure about what women do with their bodies in every way, and pregnancy is definitely one of them,” said Dr. Brighten. “Some things that may be going through their minds are, 'Am I at the age where I should be thinking about having children?' Should I do that? Is this what the fans want from me? Is this what I want for my life?'”
“It puts them in a situation where they start to question something they've never questioned before,” she added.
More and more women in the United States are choosing not to have children and to be childless by choice. In April of this year, a Michigan State University study found that one in five adults in the state, or about 1.7 million people, did not want to have children. Some critics have stated that childless adults will regret their decision not to have children later in life. But a subsequent study that analyzed the reasons why people choose to be childless found that older, childless adults were no more likely to express feelings of regret than those who are parents.
“People generally become pregnant much later in life,” said Dr. Perkins. “People wait and explore their careers and jobs first and decide to get pregnant much later.”
For Hailey, who recently celebrated her five-year wedding anniversary with her pop star husband, some people might be setting their calendars for a Bieber baby announcement at any moment. However, it is important to recognize how burdened women's lives are by societal expectations, milestones, and arbitrary schedules.
“When you hit the five-year mark, people now say, 'Oh, you could be pregnant!' or 'Maybe there's something wrong with you,'” said Dr. Brighten. “The problem with being a celebrity is that people forget your humanity. You forget that you are not just an object because you have been used as an object. I think that’s just a really important thing for people to think about, is that these are real people having real human experiences.”
The world has made a lot of progress toward body positivity and acceptance in recent years, which is why it's so surprising to both celebrities and medical professionals that the constant online pregnancy speculation is still so persistent. For Dr. Perkins, it's a sign that we still have a long way to go to accept each other exactly as we are. “I’m still confident we can do it,” she said. “But we’re not there yet.”
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