Starting next month, Queen Latifah will embark on a three-city conversation series where she'll discuss her personal weight journey, diving deep into the complexities of living with obesity.
Making stops in New York City on June 7, Houston on June 10 and Los Angeles on June 14, "The Tour" will serve as a safe space for open and honest dialogue surrounding weight loss, among other health-related topics, emphasizing Latifah's dedication to breaking the stigma around obesity.
Latifah says she learned of "the O word" in the early 2000s, when a health trainer informed her she was obese. The Equalizer star told ABC Audio she hopes sharing her story will encourage open dialogue about the panelists' and audience members' journeys and inspire worldwide change.
"I think too often we've tried to deal with this alone … or come up with these crazy things to do or we've just accepted ourselves as we are," she said. "The only way we're going to change the stigma that comes along with it and really educate people is to sit down, to have conversations."
Early on in her career Latifah was told that, due to her size, she'd "never be an A-list actor." The Emmy, Grammy and Golden Globe-winning star hopes to shed light on the causes of obesity because it's not just about what you eat, she says.
"The reality is two out of five Americans are obese," Latifah says, according to statistics shared by Novo Nordisk. "Four out of five Black women are obese … This is a genetic thing. This involves your hormones. It's bigger than me and it's bigger than you."
For more information and to sign up to attend The Tour, visit ItsBiggerThan.com.