The cost of the spotlight

Photo by: Vanity Fair

Did Ariana Grande really just have a planned hiatus or was there more to it? Grande has recently taken a hiatus after wrapping up her Eternal Sunshine Tour, on September 1, 2026.

Fans are concerned that she quit due to the harsh media scrutiny concerning her body. There are many factors to why Ariana quit, but our best guess so far is the controversy about what her body should look like. On one hand, some of her fans are saying that the recent changes in her body aren’t healthy and they are sincerely worried about how she’s doing, however others say that you shouldn’t judge women's bodies at all. Ariana Grande is telling the public that her hiatus was planned for a very long time, however fans think quite the opposite. 

Ariana Grande’s new hit single, “Petal” recently aired on May 29, 2026 and received very mixed feelings. Many fans had emotional reactions not only for the song's raw themes, but because of how the music video sparked only more concerns about her body. In her video, fans point out that her chest looks visibly different and stays still when she moves, therefore clarifying the fact that she used a silicone breastplate. In other parts of the video, you can see her whole sternum, which is not normal, and the silicone breastplate only draws more attention to her unhealthy weight. The song covers topics of extreme public scrutiny, fame, and perfectionism. She sings about never being enough for her fans, which caused fans to feel more in the wrong for her supposed “planned hiatus." Some fans are concerned that they will actually hurt Ariana more if we pretend like this amount of weight loss is normal.

Furthermore, if we normalize Ariana’s weight loss, it's setting an example for future generations to look back on when making choices concerning their bodies. According to the U.S. Health Department and Human Services, 46% of children ages 13-17 have worse body image issues due to the media. A large part of that media is celebrities, as they are the ones setting the trends that we feel the need to follow. Even though Ariana Grande and her supportive fans say that you shouldn’t comment on women’s bodies, that isn’t to say that we should normalize unhealthy weight loss and needing to be “skinny." Her other devoted fans argue that normalizing this could lead to children feeling like this is one of those new trends that we feel the need to follow.

On the other hand, allowing people to comment on how Ariana Grande has changed is like an invitation to unwantedly talk about other things concerning her, along with many hateful comments. Very often when it comes to fans posting about famous people, they start from a "concerned view," but one harsh word after another and they start becoming more and more aggressive and hate-filled. Fans can forget that even though someone's famous, that doesn’t make them any less human; they have emotions too, especially Ariana Grande, as she suffers from depression. There’s a quote from Ariana saying, “I would be in a good mood, fine, or happy, and [panic] would hit me out of nowhere. I’ve always had anxiety, but it had never been physical before. There were a couple of months straight where I felt so upside down." This shows that she can be affected and has problems just like any other human, and it is likely that this physical stress she has can affect her body. The mood of the public can easily shift and become more mocking, forgetting that the people they mock are human.

Finally, Ariana Grande’s hiatus left a lot of people wondering why she quit. We don't know the answer to that question, but I only hope that you found the tools here to help shape your idea of what happened. There are a lot of aspects to why she took a hiatus, it wasn’t simply because of one thing or another. The real reason why this has and will be discussed for a long time to come is because of the uniqueness of the situation, because we aren't comparing Ariana to anyone else, we are simply comparing Ariana to Ariana.