Paloma Elsesser didn’t know being a plus size model was a thing until she became one herself. The curvy super successful model has caught the eye of Nike, ASOS, Vogue and more because the fact is that the average woman is a size 16 and being curvy is really hot right now.
“I didn’t even know plus-sized modeling was a thing,” Elsesser says to Who What Wear. “Growing up, people would always say, ‘You have such a pretty face.’ It’s kind of backhanded. That’s the kind of things we have to stomach.” This is something that many women have to go through on an everyday basis, instead of someone telling you-you are beautiful, they tell you that you’re beautiful for someone your size and it’s so not cool.
“We have to tokenize in order to normalize,” Elsesser, 25, says. “The more that we do see one Asian model, one black model, one plus size model [in a shoot], it’s like people are dipping their toes, and the other foot goes in and then we’re neck deep and we just have to continue to do that until it’s just not a ‘thing.’ ”
