Alana ‘Honey Boo Boo’ Thompson Has a Brand New Look in ‘Teen Vogue’ Photoshoot

Alana Thompson isn’t little Honey Boo Boo anymore. The Here Comes Honey Boo Boo alum looked glam as she opened up about growing up in the spotlight in a new Teen Vogue spread, sporting stylish looks in a photoshoot ahead of her 16th birthday. “I guess people still expect me to be little Honey Boo Boo and I’m not anymore,” she told the magazine.

“Just because I’m from the South, people expect me to be all ‘country bumpkin’, out riding four-wheelers all the time, but that’s not really how it is,” she continued of her life today. “But I do not care. As long as I like myself, I’m good.” Reflecting on the body positivity movement as it’s been embraced by Gen Z, Thompson said she felt like her generation was “probably making it worse.”

“Everybody’s all about body positivity, body positivity, until they see a body they don’t like,” she said. “I don’t understand why people think this way. Just because I got a little bit of extra meat on my bones, you want to hate me? I’ll never get body shaming.” That being said, Thompson isn’t getting down on herself. “Like, I know I’m beautiful, and I know I got a banging body, so… I don’t care.”

Going to public school as a child has been difficult, and Thompson said she honestly does not have “many friends. At all.” Admitting her only friend is her boyfriend, the Mama June: Road to Redemption star explained, “Because I feel like folks are so much like, ‘Oh my God, I’m friends with Honey Boo Boo.’ I don’t trust nobody really, so I don’t have friends.”

Dealing with mom June Shannon’s struggle with drug addiction has been another hurdle for Thompson. Admitting Shannon’s battle with substance abuse has been “very, very hard on her family,” the teen said her experience is more common than people admit. “A lot of folks in this world do not realize how many people are actually really affected by drug and alcohol [use]… It’s very, very hard. It’s something I’d wish on nobody, for real,” she said. “When my mama got real bad with her [drug use], I didn’t know where I was going to end up. I’m proud of myself for how far I’ve come.”

Now repairing her relationship with her mother, Thompson has dreams of becoming a nurse after graduating high school and college. When she turns 18, she plans to move out of big sister Pumpkin’s house but isn’t too caught up with what the future holds: “I don’t know what future Alana’s like,” she teased. “I haven’t met her yet.”