Blake Lively Opens Up About Being Bullied for Her Height: Kids Were 'Calling Me Big Bird'

The bird behind Blake Lively‘s formerly unwanted nickname is now her new BFF.

The actress, 30, got to meet Big Bird while filming an appearance on Sesame Street on Thursday, and resolved some past childhood pain.

Lively revealed that her classmates used to bully her and call her Big Bird.

“Kids used to make fun of me in elementary school by calling me Big Bird (because I was ‘too tall’ and had ‘yellow’ hair). Here’s to making best buddies with the things that once hurt you,” she wrote on Instagram.

Now past her elementary school days, Lively makes a point to speak out about body shaming. After she gave birth to her first daughter, James, 3, she highlighted the unnecessary pressure moms are under to lose the baby weight.

“You don’t need to be Victoria’s Secret-ready right away because you just did the most incredible miracle that life has to offer,” Lively said in 2016. “I mean you gave birth to a human being! So I would really like to see that celebrated.”

And in a new interview in Harper’s Bazaar with model Gigi Hadid on body shaming, Lively talked about women shouldn’t compare themselves to pictures of celebrities and models, because they are often photoshopped.

“It’s so important for young people not to compare themselves with what they see online,” Lively said. “It’s our job as actors and/or models to be in shape. We have access to gyms and trainers and healthy food. And then on top of that, 99.9 percent of the time the images are Photoshopped. I’m guilty myself of being at a photo shoot and saying, ‘That looks terrible on me.’ And they’re like, ‘We’ll fix it.’ And you’re so relieved.”