Image: Getty.
Since coming runner-up on Idol back in 2006, Jessica Mauboy has gone on to become the golden girl of the Aussie pop music industry.
As if her many awards and chart-topping songs weren’t proof enough, last year the 25-year-old was the first Australian singer to perform at Eurovision — and she smashed it out of the park.
RELATED: Jessica Mauboy has chopped off her hair.
Despite her obvious achievements, there’s one aspect of Mauboy’s Australian Idol experience that many of us remember for less positive reasons: the moment when judge Kyle Sandilands told her she needed to “lose the jelly belly” if she wanted to succeed in the music industry. Charming man, that Kyle.
Did we mention she was only 16 at the time? (Post continues after gallery.)
Jessica Mauboy's best beauty looks
A stunning eye-lip combo at this year's Women of Style Awards
Our golden girl performs at Eurovision with gold eyeshadow to match.
Jess nailed the whole 'eyeliner' thing during Mercedes Benz Fashion Week this year.
Jess keeps it classic at a Sapphires screening in New York in 2013.
All about the lashes and brows at the G'Day USA gala in 2013.
Red lips, bronze eyelids and old Hollywood hair at the 2012 ARIA Awards pre-party.
That smile! Jess pairs dewy skin with sky-high lashes in 2012
Seriously smokey eyes at the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards in 2010
Jess rocks some dark, moody eyeshadow - and hair to match - back in 2009
In an interview with Who two years after Idol, Mauboy reflected on her initial reaction to Sandilands’ comment. “I kind of took it as a joke… I look back on it as a positive thing – it made me a stronger person,” she told the magazine.
Now, the ARIA winner — and new face of Target womenswear — has spoken about how feeling uncomfortable with her weight at the time spurred her to embark on a healthier lifestyle.
RELATED: Lauren Conrad bans body shaming words from her site – but is that really helpful?
“I look back to when I was 16 and I remember feeling very heavy on Idol,” she says in the latest issue of OK! Australia. “I think my music really boosted me. I just want to be healthy and I want to love myself.”
Mauboy has dropped two dress sizes over the past nine years, through a combination of a “clean diet of protein and vegetables” and exercise. She shared a rundown of her average day on a plate with OK!, and it seems pretty damn achievable.
Jess is the face of Target Womenswear
Breakfast is "a nice fresh smoothie and some eggs and avocado"; lunch is a chicken salad, and dinner grilled chicken or fish with salad. The singer snacks on unsalted nuts and protein bars between meals, and enjoys a cheese platter with fruit for dessert.
Clearly Mauboy is loving life right now, and we reckon she looks great — although she always has — and we can't wait to see where her career goes next.
RELATED: This is Bindi Irwin all grown up, and now she's dishing out life advice.
As for that awful 'jelly belly' situation, it's hard to fathom just how much a weight jibe like that could affect any women, let alone a teenager. Body shaming, even when it's positioned as 'constructive career advice' as Sandilands' comment presumably was, can be hugely detrimental.
"It impacts on the confidence and self-esteem of young women. It can also redirect attention away from their talents, development, skills and other creative areas of a woman’s life," says psychologist and director of Blue Horizon Counselling Yuliya Richard.
That so-called 'belly' didn't stop Jessica Mauboy from winning hearts across the country, either. It's about time we killed off that whole 'slim = successful' attitude.
What's your favourite Jessica Mauboy song?
We love these celeb quotes on body image
Rebel Wilson
The actress said on Twitter; "I'm not trying to be hot. I'm just trying to be a good actress and entertain people." Image via @rebelwilson
Lady Gaga
After the media focused on her alleged weight gain in September 2012, Gaga hit back at critics by baring her body in photographs, sharing her struggles with an eating disorder, and inviting her fans to join her in a "body revolution"/ Image via @ladygaga
Ashley Judd
After the March 2012 frenzy around Judd's "puffy face" the actress fought back in 'The Daily Beast', calling the media out for making women's bodies "a source of speculation, ridicule, and invalidation, as if they belong to others". Image via @ashley_judd
Christina Aguilera
"I am always in support of someone who is willing and comfortable in their own skin enough to embrace it," the singer said in a recent interview. Image via @xtina
Lena Dunham
At the 2012 New Yorker Festival, the magazine's TV critic, Emily Nussbaum, asked Lena Dunham, producer, creator and star of the hit HBO show 'Girls' why Dunham is naked in so many scenes. Dunham responded; "I realised that what was missing in movies for me was the presence of bodies I understood." She said she plans to live until she is 105 and show her thighs every day. Image via @lenadunham
Alexa Chung
Chung responded to critics who suggested that her slight frame made her a bad role model for young women, saying: "Just because I exist in this shape doesn't mean that I'm, like, advocating it." Image via Twitter @alexa_chung
Beth Ditto
This five-foot-tall, 200-pound singer spoke openly about her weight to 'The Advocate' saying, "I feel sorry ... for people who've had skinny privilege and then have it taken away from them. I have had a lifetime to adjust to seeing how people treat women who aren't their idea of beautiful and therefore aren't their idea of useful, and I had to find ways to become useful to myself." Image via @marybethditto
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