Getting ready! Danielle Brooks is pregnant with her first child and feels extra responsibility to promote body positivity and acceptance.
“Now that I’m about to be a mother, it means even more to make sure that this human being I’m going to bring into the world knows that they are enough when they’re hit with all these bullets coming at them,” the Orange Is the New Black star, 29, said in a tearful Tuesday, August 13, Instagram video for her SHAPE cover story. “I feel like the world has built these invisible bullets to bully us in telling us who we’re supposed to be and what we’re supposed to look like. And I’ve always had this desire to prove people wrong — to say that this body that I’m in is enough.”
The actress announced last month that she has a little one on the way with an Instagram reveal featuring a positive Clearblue pregnancy test. “So elated to finally share this news with you all,” the South Carolina native captioned the July post. “I’m happily pregnant!”
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Brooks went on to debut her baby bump on her Instagram Story, writing, “When one chapter ends, another begins. Super excited to share with you my new beginning. I’M PREGNANT. Counting my blessings. 5 months in!”
That same month, the Tony nominee described the moment she found out that she is pregnant on ABC Radio. “I was really excited,” the Sadie star revealed. “I was like, ‘Wait, I guess I do want to be a mom? Mom, I’m gonna be a mommy! Oh my God! I get to be a mother.’ So, I was really excited — kind of in disbelief.”
![Shape Magazine Cover Danielle Brooks Orange Is The New Black Body Positivity Expectant Mother](/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Shape-Cover-Danielle-Brooks-Orange-Is-The-New-Black-Body-Positivity-Expectant-Mother.jpg?w=692&quality=86&strip=all)
She added, “There’s always this thing with workaholics where you’re like, ‘Wait, can I still work? How we gon’ make this work?’ But we will. And, I think everything happens for a reason. I’m about to be 30. I feel ready to be a mom.”