Celebs Redefining Beautiful in Hollywood

Adele and Melissa McCarthy

McCarthy gracefully weathered controversy last year when a Marie Claire blogger wrote hateful words about her weight (she portrays one half of an overweight couple on the CBS show Mike & Molly); in 2011, she nabbed an Emmy for her work. Now the plus-sized actress, 41, has plans to launch a clothing line for fuller figured women who, like her, struggle to dress fashion-forward. She says having two daughters taught her to stop obsessing over her appearance: "I just try not to give too much energy to it. At 20, I would have been like: 'Don't they like me? Was it my hair?' At 41, I think the things that define me, I hope, are a lot more than those kinds of petty things.”

Superstar British songstress Adele, 23, has made her mark as a plus role model, too. “[My size has] just never been an issue–at least, I’ve never hung out with the sort of horrible people who make it an issue,” she told Vogue UK. “I have insecurities of course, but I don’t hang out with anyone who points them out to me."