Alana “Honey Boo Boo” Thompson opens up about how her mother, Mama June Shannon’s 300-lb. weight loss in 2017 affected her body image as an impressionable young girl
Thompson recalls how “scary” it was to see such a dramatic change in her mother’s physical appearance in a short amount of time
The 19-year-old admits she had doubts about whether or not she’d be expected to undergo the same procedures one day because “I’m a bigger girl”
Alana “Honey Boo Boo” Thompson didn’t expect her mother, Mama June Shannon’s physical transformation to influence the way she looked at herself in the mirror.
In an exclusive conversation with PEOPLE for this week’s cover story, the Here Comes Honey Boo Boo alum, 19, is opening up about how Mama June’s dramatic 300-lb. weight loss affected her own body image as an impressionable young teen.
Back in 2017, Mama June told PEOPLE that she underwent an extensive series of surgeries that included an insertion of a gastric sleeve, breast augmentation and skin removal on her “turkey neck,” “bat wings” and stomach — an area where doctors removed 9 lbs. of loose skin. All of which totaled $75,000.
Her weight loss eventually became the focus of the We TV reality show, Mama June: From Not to Hot.
“I feel like Mama’s physical transformation, it didn’t take as much of a toll on my life [at the time],” Alana, 19, tells PEOPLE. “But now I’m looking back and I’m like, ‘That was crazy.’ That was a dramatic change, and I didn’t know how to even think of my mom. My mom went from being 300 lbs. to 100 lbs.”
For more on the tumultuous life of Alana ‘Honey Boo Boo’ Thompson, pick up this week’s issue of PEOPLE, available Friday.
“It was kind of scary if I’m being honest. It was like, how did she lose all of that weight so fast? And she was so tiny, she almost looked sick,” Alana adds.
The reality star admits that the transformation “took a big toll on body image for me.” Like her mother, Alana says she’s always been a “bigger girl” and the stark changes in Mama June’s physical appearance gave her doubts about her own.
Ari & Louise
Alana ‘Honey Boo Boo’ Thompson
“My mama was a bigger girl, and her having to get surgery and shrink down to this one size, I thought in my head like, ‘Oh, am I going to have to do that one day because I’m a bigger girl? Am I going to have to be in this perfect picture, and just get surgery, so I’m like this skinny little model?'” she recalled.
“It definitely did take a toll on my self-image for sure,” Alana adds.
Nowadays, the television personality is pursing higher education as she studies to become a nurse at Regis University in Colorado. She’s also reclaiming her own narrative in Lifetime’s new biopic, I Was Honey Boo Boo.
In the project, Thompson will narrate the film as she look back at her days of child stardom. Per the official logline, the movie will offer a glimpse into what went on behind the scenes, revealing how her on-stage persona “concealed the harsh reality of constant criticism and family struggles, particularly with her mother, Mama June [Shannon].”
Ari & Louise
Alana ‘Honey Boo Boo’ Thompson
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Though she’s excited to tell her story, Alana admits she feels nervous about how it will be received by her mother.
“I did not want this movie to be throwing punches at my mama and making her out to be the bad guy,” she says. “But I didn’t hold back and if she gets mad, at the end of the day it’s the truth.”
I Was Honey Boo Boo premieres Saturday, May 17 at 8 p.m. ET on Lifetime.
Read the original article on People
