Ariana Grande, 33, has been a famous singer and actress since she was a teenager on the Nickelodeon shows “Victorious” and “Sam & Cat.” She has performed in the spotlight for over half her life, but after costarring in “Wicked” and “Wicked: For Good,” fans noticed something disconcerting about Grande and her fellow actresses.

During press tours for the movies in 2024 and 2025, fans commented on how skeletal all the women looked. It wasn’t just Grande, whose ribs were visible; Cynthia Erivo and Michelle Yeoh also looked gaunt and unhealthy, with collarbones sticking out.

This was chalked up to Hollywood’s Ozempic craze and the stress of making such a big production. But it’s important to note that eating disorders can spread by social contagion and media influence.

Grande resented that fans were so-called “body-shaming” her. She had a teary exchange on TikTok, where she talked about not judging people because you don’t know what they’re going through. Moreover, her press team gave fans a gentle reminder to mind their own business.

People stopped talking about it for a while, hoping that Grande would regain her regular beauty and healthy frame.

Her own future and goals remained focused: she was set to play a lead in a revival of Stephen Sondheim’s “Sunday in the Park with George” (she even took a promotional tour with her costar in front of the iconic George Seurat painting that inspired the musical); she toured for her seventh studio album “Eternal Sunshine”; and she has been in the thick of promoting her eighth album, “Petal.”

While on tour, though, the fans’ alarm reached fever pitch. Grande looked emaciated and sticklike in her music video promos and while dancing on stage.

Then the “Petal” music videos were released, one of which addresses Grande’s disdain for those who criticize her body, as she literally decapitates her critics with a chainsaw. As if that weren’t enough, she has consistently and scornfully discouraged her fans from commenting on her continued weight loss.

But the fans have been persistent — and for good reason. Consequently, Grande announced over the weekend that she would be taking a break from her public-facing work after she wraps up her “Eternal Sunshine Tour” and would no longer be participating in the Sondheim revival.

“Ariana will be taking a step back from visibility after she completes the Eternal Sunshine Tour,” her handler said. “She looks forward to finishing the tour and ending it on a high note, both healthily and happily and then taking a much-deserved break from public facing work and appearances which has led to endless, ongoing public scrutiny.”

The production team of “Sunday in the Park with George” added this: “Following this evening’s announcement for Ariana Grande’s team, we can now confirm that she has decided to step back from Sunday in the Park with George. We know this has not been an easy decision, and she makes it with our complete understanding and support.”

It’s true — no one knows exactly what Grande is dealing with, be it an eating disorder, an illness, or Ozempic. Regardless, her thinness is not sustainable. Fans don’t want to see her waste away and die because of it.

If she is indeed dealing with an eating disorder, bowing out from the spotlight is the right thing to do, particularly if she is getting help. With anorexia, drawing attention to weight loss has the opposite effect, causing sufferers to double down — which seems to have been Grande’s attitude since concerns were voiced.

As a media influencer, Grande’s appearing to glorify extreme thinness could harm her followers. As mentioned above, eating disorders can disseminate quickly via social contagion and trigger other people’s disorders.

Sadly, most celebrities seem to be following the emaciation trend. With the advent of weight-loss drugs like Ozempic, even stars like Amy Schumer and Lizzo can shed pounds quickly. Even so, others still stubbornly hang on to the “body positivity” mantra. Hollywood is a microcosm of double standards: According to leftists, someone’s 300-pound overweight body is perfectly fine — but Grande’s frail and sickly frame is also healthy. It’s one extreme or the other, neither of which is, in fact, healthy.

All the while, the “body positivity” police claim that going to the gym and eating healthily is actually eugenics. In other words, they happily promote a person killing themselves via obesity and a sedentary lifestyle, or via wasting away. Regular people can’t win.

I hope and pray that Ariana Grande can break out of whatever is keeping her trapped.