It's a rather long article so I'll post highlights:

Kelly Clarkson, a Pop Star Proud in Her Own Skin
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/30/fa...mid=tw-nytimes

- “I am not a schmaltzy type,” said Ms. Travali, who edits an online women’s magazine in Fairfield, Conn., during a phone interview. But as Ms. Clarkson sang “The War Is Over,” she said, “tears were rolling down my face. As someone who has struggled with low self-esteem and body image, I have such a strong appreciation for powerful women who sing their truth. Kelly’s songs are not just about failed relationships with others, but failed relationships with ourselves. Boom! I’m learning here: What did I do to hurt me?”

For a decade, Ms. Clarkson has been belting power-pop hits like “I Do Not Hook Up” and “Since U Been Gone,” and dismissing withering criticism of her weight. As a result, her fans have built a distinctive relationship with her: less that of conventional adulation than of identification and admiration. “You get a sense that she’s one of us,” Ms. Travali said.

- “Kelly’s not afraid to discuss anything,” said Mrs. Kroning, a fan by dint of driving teenage girls around with the car radio blasting. Referring to a cut on “Stronger,” she added, “ ‘What Doesn’t Kill You (Stronger),’ should be an anthem.”

- In an interview, Courtney E. Martin, author of “Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters,” said, “There’s so much talk about Taylor Swift being the girl next door” — the role played by the singer in her video for “You Belong With Me” — “but she’s tall and blond, the girl that the girl next door wants to be. But with Kelly, you sense that she really is the girl next door. She acknowledges more complexity than most stars talk about.

“For any woman to not only own her body size at an average woman’s weight is amazing, let alone to own weight gain without shaming and stigmatizing it publicly. It’s a difficult line to walk because Kelly’s private. She doesn’t want to be known as the fat activist pop star. That’s not her mantle."

- “Female pop stars like Beyoncé, Rihanna, Taylor Swift, Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez all come out of the relationship factory,” dating other celebrities, said Ann Powers, a critic for NPR Music. “But Kelly has stood outside of that. She is not trying to sell herself on the red carpet.”

- Ms. Powers, the NPR Music critic, said, “Here is someone who was manufactured by the music industry, by ‘American Idol,’ and it’s ironic that she has emerged as one of our most authentic artists.”

- Donnette Noel, an adviser to the Dressing Room Project, a girls’ body-image campaign, has been following Ms. Clarkson since her “American Idol” debut. “She was this down-home girl, so sweet and down to earth,” Ms. Noel, 24, said. “You’d expect her to change. But she hasn’t. Her weight fluctuates, and she’s O.K. with that. She became a role model without even trying.”

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i dont like her music but i think shes a very cool chick

she was on X Factor UK last week and although she was overweight she looked comfortable and gave a good performance. she used to be sooo skinny though







i guess she just doesnt care

Ugh, she used to be so ****ing hot.

She used to look ****ing amazing.

It's good that she doesn't care. These teen girls need more people like Kelly.

She even had abs.

and a ass

Kelly looks fine just the way she is. She is not overweight. She works out, but she also likes to eat. There's nothing wrong with loving the way you look even though people say you shouldn't. She wears unflattering outfits at times that accentuate her curves in bad ways, but that doesn't mean she's overweight.