Shawn Johnson is one of the most accomplished gymnasts in US Olympic history. The sport she loved and gave her all to came with some downsides, however.
The pressure to maintain a certain body type within the sport was difficult for Shawn. At just 4'11", Shawn had a different body type than the lean, graceful gymnasts who were popular during the time. Couple that pressure with the fact that she was just 12 years old when she began her journey to the Olympics and you can understand how she might struggle.
In 2015, Shawn revealed that she was battling an eating disorder leading up to the 2008 Olympics. Although she never received a formal diagnosis or treatment, at points she was restricting herself to just 700 calories a day.
Shawn has overcome her struggles with disordered eating. When she learned she was pregnant with her and husband Andrew East's first child, she became concerned that the pregnancy weight gain might trigger her problematic habits again. That's when Shawn had a frank discussion with Andrew about watching for signs that things could be heading in a bad direction.
In October 2019, Shawn and Andrew welcomed daughter Drew Hazel East, their rainbow baby. In a discussion with Today Parents, Shawn opened up about how she's managing her postpartum body.
When Shawn Johnson learned she was pregnant with her and husband Andrew East's first child, she was elated. The pregnancy came a year and a half after Shawn experienced a miscarriage. She was excited to embark on that journey, but she also had concerns.
Shawn's past as an Olympic gymnast came with many points of pride. It also came with a lot of body image issues. In 2015, Shawn opened up about how that led to an eating disorder.
"I was always the very strong, powerful, muscly, bulky gymnast and I felt like people always wanted me to be thinner and lighter and leaner," she told People. "And as a 12-year-old, the only way I really understood how to achieve that was to eat less and restrict myself. I remember kind of obsessing over it."
"I went as far as literally not eating any carbs. I wouldn’t allow myself to eat a single noodle of soup," she continued. "It got to point where my body was like, shutting down. I was on a diet where I would eat like 700 calories a day – all the way through the 2008 Olympics."
Shawn explained that she was never diagnosed with an eating disorder. She never sought treatment, but she knew after she closed the chapter on professional gymnastics that she didn't want to return to those habits.
"I never went to a doctor, talked to a psychologist or was diagnosed as anorexic, but I was definitely obsessive and had very unhealthy habits," she explained. "I’m sure I would have been diagnosed with something but I just never got to that point."
Shawn's body came under scrutiny again when people saw her post-Olympic weight gain when she started competing on Dancing With the Stars.
"I just seemed to be the perfect target. Being 4’11” and putting on 20 lbs. looks like a lot, and people had no problem voicing their opinions," she explained. "I took it really hard. As a perfectionist coming from the gymnastics world where you have to earn respect, I felt like I was losing the respect that I had earned, and it kind of broke me down."
It pushed Shawn to look for quick fixes to lose the weight, even though she knew that wasn't the answer.
"It’s a vicious cycle. Instead of putting in the time and effort to be healthy and do things the right way, you look for a quick fix that might work for a week or two. But then you put weight back on, and your mental health and confidence go back down," she explained. "With every attempt to be healthy and lose weight, with every failure, I just got more defeated."
She credits being able to open up to Andrew about what she experienced with putting her on the road to better habits. "Before him, I didn’t voice any of this to anybody," she explained.
"I knew I had unhealthy habits, but I don’t think most people knew. There was an open honesty with him. I felt like I could just be me and I knew he was still going to love me."
That confidence in their relationship is what made it easy for Shawn to open up to Andrew about her concerns during pregnancy. "I gave Andrew a list of things to look for, and if he started seeing them, he needed to talk to me," Shawn told Today Parents. "I was really scared."
As she began putting on weight, Shawn found that a shift in her mentality left her with nothing to worry about. "As soon as I got pregnant, I couldn’t care less what I looked like, what I gained, or what the scale said," she said.
"For me, it was no longer my body. It was for my baby. And I felt like it had such a purpose that no material body image issue occupied my brain."
Shawn and Andrew welcomed Drew Hazel East on October 29. Shawn believes that seeing what her body was capable of through pregnancy and delivery has helped her accept herself thoroughly. She's proud that her body was able to help her bring a magical little life into the world.
"I remember going in for my check-up appointment at the OB-GYN and the doctor said, ‘Your (c-section) scar is a little bigger than it should be and I was like, ‘I don’t care. I’m proud,’" Shawn noted. Being a mom has given her a new perspective.
"I don’t feel pressure to work out, or eat certain things or look a certain way because my body made a human being and that’s pretty amazing."
Shawn has learned a lot from her first four months of motherhood. Like so many moms in the limelight, that means dealing with mommy shamers. Shawn has been slammed for everything from supplementing breast milk with formula to guiding Drew through a little flip.
It's gotten so frequent that Shawn's been able to break it down into three categories. Mom shamers constantly call her out her regarding car seats, head stabilization, and socks.
"You just kind of figure out that the mommy shamers are overly passionate moms themselves who have figured out something that works for them and now they're preaching the gospel of it," she told E! News. While sometimes it can be well-meant, other times it can get heated. Shawn's learned to shrug it off.
"So you have to take it with a grain of salt and be like, 'Okay, it worked for you, it didn't work for us, so we're going to do this instead.'"
Shawn knows that her decision to share aspects of her parenting will come with highs and lows. What she's sure of is that she wants to protect Drew from anything that could cause her harm now or later down the road. With a support system like Shawn and Andrew, Drew is sure to grow up to be an incredible woman, just like her mom.
