Lisa Lampanelli Opens Up About Learning To Feel Confident In Her 50s

Years after her weight-loss surgery, the comedian has learned to embrace her body.
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Comedian-turned-playwright Lisa Lampanelli is out with a new off-Broadway play that explores the plights women face when it comes to body image. It’s something that hits close to home for Lampanelli, who explained to The Huffington Post earlier this week how she’s learned to embrace herself later in life.

Lampanell’s play, “Stuffed,” centers around four women struggling with food and body image issues. She told HuffPost Live host Alex Berg that one of the characters in the play is based on herself, a person who struggled with overeating for years.

It’s only now that Lampanelli, 55, said she’s gained more confidence, a few years after undergoing weight loss surgery in 2012. But she spoke of an inspiring close friend who “loves herself” no matter her size.

“She’s just such an inspiration. If I had been able to have had that confidence, I wouldn’t have had to have the weight loss surgery,” Lampanelli said. “I wouldn’t just be getting confidence at age 55.”

It’s an ongoing process of self-discovery for Lampanelli, who said she’s looking at the surgery in a different light now.

“Yesterday it dawned on me during rehearsal as I was walking from the garage [that] I literally had most of my stomach removed to help me like myself,” she said. The comedian went on to praise the current body positivity movement, which she wishes had been active when she was younger.

“I’ve noticed women under 30 or so seem to have this great body positivity movement going, which I didn’t even know about until I started interviewing girls,” Lampanelli said. She explained how she met a young girl who spoke about her supportive Tumblr community and said “I like myself as I am.”

“I’m like ‘Oh my God.’ If I said that when I was 22, think of the stuff that I would have escaped,” Lampanelli said.

Watch the full conversation with Lisa Lampanelli here.

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