Chrissy Metz has been an outspoken advocate for body positivity for a few years now, but she admits that the road to loving herself hasn't been an easy one. The actress recently covered Glamour's November issue [1] with her This Is Us [2] co-stars, Susan Kelechi Watson and Mandy Moore [3], when she opened up about her first time feeling comfortable in a bathing suit.

"I grew up wearing a T-shirt at the pool," she said in the interview. "As an adult, I was like, 'I'm gonna find a bathing suit I like and I'm gonna wear it.'"

After that declaration, the 38-year-old was quick to follow through on her promise. She went on a beach holiday to Barbados earlier this summer when she captured her swimsuit-clad moment via a photo that she later posted to Instagram. The photo shows Metz posing next to a close friend looking happy as can be in a black bathing suit from Lane Bryant. She later mentioned that, though she received a lot of support from her fans on social media after posting the photo, many of their compliments came off as being "backhanded."

"There were people, like, 'Oh my God, look at you! You know I could never do that," she said. "It's a backhanded compliment, but I'm doing what I want to do."

Chrissy also opened up about her role as Kate Pearson [4] on the hit NBC show, and how her character sheds a different light on how curvy women are portrayed in television and film.

"People who've never been overweight don't understand what it all entails. They think you're just sitting in the corner and all you do is eat," she said. "My thing is, let's get to the real issues — because the food is the symptom; it's not the issue. Everyone's filling a void with something."