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Most people remember McKayla Maroney as an Olympian athlete or as a viral meme—but after retiring from gymnastics competition earlier this year, she's working to move past those labels and build a music career. However, as her recent interview in Seventeen reveals, that road doesn't come without its fair share of scrutiny.
Like Kylie Jenner and many celebrities before her (Kylie Jenner, anyone?), Maroney has been judged on social media for her more pronounced lips, which some people are claiming she enhanced with fillers. Even though it's really none of their business whether she did or didn't—and, for the record, it's nobody's business whether any woman did or didn't—Maroney set the record straight saying her new look is the result of the entirely natural process of growing up (she was only 16 at the 2012 Olympic Games) and a newfound interest in makeup. Come on, who hasn't tried overlining their lips?
"One of my best friends, Alexa Losey, is a YouTuber. She got me into the makeup and all the tutorials," Maroney explained in the interview. "And she overlines her lips. People are used to her doing that, and they're not used to me doing that, so when I started, they freaked out."
Maroney, who's now 20, also explained how people judging her on social media from such a young age affected her: "Growing up in the social media world, it's tough. Your face changes, you get older, your face fills out, and you fall into liking makeup and different stuff like that. And for people saying that, for the most part—it would kind of hurt my feelings when you haven't done anything."
But even with all of the attention, Maroney comes off in the interview as excited and positive about the future. She talks about her lifelong interests in art and particularly music, which seems to be her new path. She's been writing songs for the past year and was initially planning to sell them to other artists but has decided to pursue her own career as a performer.
And as for the haters? "I can't blame anybody for saying, 'Oh, she changed!' You know, because I have. And that's OK," Maroney said. "It's good to keep evolving and growing. I think most people should be accepting with stuff like that, but you know, you can't force anybody into feeling a certain way. So for anybody who's judging it and not liking it, that's fine. Unfollow me. I don't really care."
One hundred percent, McKayla.
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Source: http://www.glamour.com/story/former-olympic-gymnast-mckayla-maroney-lip-injection
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