Nigerian singer Aituaje Vivian Ebele Iruobe, popularly known as Waje, has shared a candid detail from her younger years about struggling with insecurity over her physique. The award-winning artist made the revelation during a recent appearance on the Her Next Chapter podcast hosted by Tope Olowoniyan.
Waje explained that she has always been “heavy at the top,” even before becoming a mother, and that the feature once made her deeply uncomfortable.
“Even before I had my child, I have always been heavy at the top and I used to hate it. All through my 20s, I used to wear like three bras. I’d tighten them so my breast would look like peanuts because I used to be very uncomfortable about how heavy I was at the top and I wasn’t quite heavy underneath.”
The singer described how she actively tried to conceal what she saw as an overwhelming part of her body during that period of her life. Over time, however, Waje has grown into full confidence about her natural features and no longer feels the need to hide them, attributing her confidence to motherhood.
“Motherhood makes you think about how you’re replicating yourself in your child so I got to a point where I needed to be confident so that that’d be the sort of energy my daughter gets from me.”
She recounted a particularly disturbing experience when she had a performance and started trending on Twitter because of her figure.
“I remember in 2013, I was performing at a live show, and I was trending on Twitter because somebody posted that I looked like a DSTV remote and I hadn’t built my confidence at the time so I was very insecure.”
She concluded by thanking industry colleagues and friends for helping her through that dark time and expressed the confidence she now has in herself.
“Shout out to friends like MI and a few others. Now, I feel like I have the best body.”
Her honest admission on the podcast has resonated with many women who have faced or are still facing similar battles with body image and self-acceptance.
The revelation comes as part of broader conversations on the Her Next Chapter platform, where they discussed personal growth, challenges and the next phase of their lives.