For certain celebrities, being is just part of the job.
Actors and models pose for racy ad campaigns all the time, perform love scenes in the buff,
and strip down for music videos and sexy magazine spreads.
And while celebrity skin is mostly used to titillate, sometimes stars will use the eye-popping
power of their birthday suit to bring attention to a good cause.
Those are the A-listers we're featuring here, along with the real reasons these famous folks
bared it all.
Demi Lovato
As a champion for body positivity, Demi Lovato has been open about her struggles with eating
disorders and addictions, and she now frequently speaks out about the importance of accepting
one's body.
In a September 2015 interview with People, the "Sorry Not Sorry" singer said,
"It's important for me to show people you can go from hating yourself, to loving yourself
and being proud of your body and the skin you're in."
A few weeks later, Lovato asked Vanity Fair photographer Patrick Ecclesine to shoot her
in an impromptu, make-up free, and un-retouched session.
For Lovato, it was an important moment, and one that coincided with the release of her
album, Confident, which she said, quote, "finally represents who I really am."
Lovato continued,
"It's empowering and it shows other women that you can get to a place where you can
overcome the the obstacles of body image issues."
"...you can feel confident in your own skin."
Adam Levine
Maroon 5 crooner and The Voice star Adam Levine is no stranger to racy performances, like
his raunchy turn in the 2014 video for Maroon 5's song "Animals", which sparked a controversy
with the sexual assault support group, RAINN, who described it as "dangerous depiction of
a stalker's fantasy."
But long before Levine got in the buff on behalf of the band, he did it for a good cause:
the Britain-based testicular and prostate cancer awareness charity, Everyman.
Shot for Cosmo UK, Levine appeared, sans clothes, with only his girlfriend's hands covering
up the goods.
Gillian Anderson
As an active PETA supporter, X-Files star Gillian Anderson has appeared in many ad campaigns
for the activist group, and she's personally reached out to governments around the world
to protest alleged animal abuses.
In 2013, Anderson also partnered with an organization called Fishlove, which strives to raise awareness
about unsustainable and destructive fishing practices.
Anderson, and many other celebs, stripped bare and posed with striking creatures from
the deep.
Anderson's portrait, in particular, looks to have taken an insane amount of guts as
she appears topless with a monstrous conger eel draped over her shoulders.
Other stars who have posed for Fishlove include Helena Bonham Carter, Dougray Scott, Ben Kingsley,
and Gotham's Sean Pertwee.
Laverne Cox
Actress Laverne Cox has been on the forefront of transgender issues since her breakout role
in Orange Is The New Black.
Since then, she's been a powerful advocate for advancing transgender narratives in media,
also starring as the first actual transgendered woman to star as a transgendered woman on
a broadcast series in the CBS drama, Doubt.
When Allure approached Cox to appear in their annual spread of celebrity portraits, she
was hesitant, but eventually came around, saying,
"Seeing a black transgender woman embracing and loving everything about herself might
be inspiring to some other folks."
Cox spoke with Access Hollywood about the shoot, adding that she did it for personal
reasons as well.
"...part of it was, for me, celebrating this time in my life.
Celebrating my body."
"And I like to foreground my intelligence and talent, but our bodies matter too.
And loving and accepting our bodies is really important."
David Cross
Comedian and actor David Cross approaches his activism with humor, even if veers off
in a dark direction.
In a behind-the-scenes interview for his shoot for PETA's "Rather Go Than Wear Fur" campaign,
Cross got serious about what he views as the outdated practice of skinning animals to make
clothing out of their fur.
"I see absolutely no reason to skin an animal and use its fur.
It's completely unnecessary."
"But we've evolved, we have science and technology you don't have to have fur."
Mel B
Spice Girl Mel B recreated Janet Jackson's iconic Rolling Stone cover in her pictorial
for the breast cancer awareness charity, CoppaFeel.
Like Adam Levine, Mel B also relied on Cosmo UK to shoot a risqué, yet high fashion photo,
while promoting an important message in the process.
Speaking with the mag, Mel B described a scary personal story that inspired her to get involved
with the charity, saying,
"I found a lump when I was 17 and freaked out."
"It turned out it was nothing, but it terrified me.
Ever since, I've always been one for checking, then double checking."
Ashley Tisdale
Former Disney starlet Ashley Tisdale is another actress who decided to strip down for Allure's
celebrity portraits in 2011, and while she told the magazine that she uses a grueling
workout schedule to maintain her figure, the shoot was more of a rite of passage than it
was about showing off, saying,
"I'm 25, almost 26, but people think of me as much younger because I look young."
"Being in this shoot was me saying, 'I'm not just the young girl everybody thinks I am.
I'm actually a woman.'"
A year after the birthday suit shoot, she appeared in a few episodes of Sons of Anarchy
as an escort, and her next risque role wouldn't come for another four years when she played
a stripper in the forgettable Amateur Night.
For now, Tisdale is appearing in the adult animated series, Ginger Snaps on ABCd, the
digital arm of the Disney-owned network, so it seems Tisdale still hasn't really strayed
far from home after all.
Dennis Rodman
Basketball superstar Dennis Rodman was both the first man, and the first athlete to participate
in PETA's "Rather Go Than Wear Fur" campaign.
Featured in their "Ink Not Mink" series, Rodman told PETA that his animal activism was inspired
by a short video Pamela Anderson made, which exposed the practices of the fur industry,
saying,
"If you actually look at [the video] firsthand, it gives you a different perspective on animals
and how they're treated."
His PETA appearance certainly wasn't Rodman's first rodeo.
In 1995, Rodman famously went for Sports Illustrated.
Other stars appearing in PETA's Ink Not Mink campaign included Dave Navarro, Chad Ochocinco,
and Steve-O.
Katy Perry
As an outspoken supporter of Hillary Clinton throughout the 2016 presidential election,
Katy Perry worked for over a year on the former Secretary of State's campaign.
According to The Telegraph, Perry even went so far as to knock on doors to drum up support
for her candidate, as well as perform rally concerts right up until election night.
She also partnered with Funny Or Die for a get-out-the-vote video in which she encouraged
people to get out to the polls looking however they do when they roll out of bed.
For Perry, that's so she cleverly claimed.
The video drove nearly five million sets of eyeballs to her cause.
"I know that I have the right to vote."
"Did you read it?
Or briefly scan it?"
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