Reece Weaver has been a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader since 2023, and despite fitting into the iconic uniform year after year she has body image struggles like anyone else.
The America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders star revealed that her ups and downs with how she feels regarding her looks began as a child.
“In middle school I really started to struggle with body image,” Weaver explained on the Tuesday, July 8, episode of the “Happy and Healthy” podcast. “I mean constantly as a dancer, you’re being raised up, you’re constantly looking at yourself in the mirror. As a 3-year-old you’re looking at yourself in a mirror.”
The professional cheerleader confessed, “It’s really easy to do in a broken world to look around you and go, ‘Oh, she’s this. She has this better strength, [that] I don’t. It’s my weakness. I would love to have her body, and I don’t look like that.’”
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To overcome those inner demons, Weaver said she had to “press into” her Christian faith.
“I’m not going to believe in what the world thinks and says I am. I am going to believe in what Jesus tells me,” she shared. “I still struggle to this day, but I also know that my comfort comes from him and only him. His opinion is the one that matters most.”
When asked whether her body image struggles “linger” while being part of DCC, Weaver said it’s hard to escape them, but her teammates help her to block out the self-deprecating noise.
“When you’re looking around a team of 36 beautiful, smart, talented, incredible women it is such a blessing, but it can be intimidating,” Weaver explained. “We have such a strong sisterhood that we all know deep down we’re experiencing that so we press into each other and really rely on each other.”
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Weaver, who was also a cheerleader at the University of Alabama, admitted that she has stumbled at times when thinking about her body in comparison to others.
“I still struggle with this topic in general because we live in a fallen world. That’s never going to go away,” she told podcast host Jeanine Amapola.
Now that she is a happily married woman and a public figure thanks to her time on DCC, Weaver said she has a message for other girls who struggle with the same intrusive thoughts. (Weaver married Will Allman after her rookie season in April 2024.)
“I think one of the biggest pieces of advice I can give [is] when I think about younger Reece, younger Reece would want an ideal, realistic body. I feel like growing up I didn’t really have that,” Weaver recalled. “I felt like the era that I was in was, ‘Oh, like, if you want to be this you have to be tiny and a double zero’ and all these requirements.”
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Weaver noted she would “never” want her future daughter to experience those insecurities and unrealistic markers.
“So I feel like the more I can think about living a healthy lifestyle not just physically, but emotionally, mentally, spiritually,” she continued. “I feel like those are what matters most.”
Weaver concluded that the “only opinion that matters is Jesus,” and he doesn’t care about what anyone looks like.
“What matters is who you are on the inside,” Weaver added, confessing, “I have to remind myself that every day though because it can be hard.”
If you or someone you know struggles with an eating disorder, visit the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa & Associated Disorders (ANAD) website or call their hotline at (888)-375-7767 to get help.
