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.’ ”
She was asked to do a nude photo shoot for Glassier Body Hero which took a lot from her emotionally since she had never done a nude photo shoot before. “I cried 3 times before this shoot. I cried because I still feel scared, paralyzed by insecurity at times, and exhausted by an unfettered vulnerability that I want to present to the world,” she wrote on Instagram. “Being fat isn’t ugly or shameful. To prove to one person that it isn’t BRAVE to be fat, but bountiful. And for that young girl looking on Instagram, or walking down Spring St., that she is fucking perfect despite the precarious and irresponsible versions of beauty we are urged to digest.”
It took a lot of courage and determination to do that photo shoot and it’s paid off big time. “As much as I compared myself, it was quite early that I realized that I am different and there’s not much I can change about it. There’s just no other option,” Elsesser says.
~ indigo collection for @nikewomen by @ronanksm 🎐 this was so special ~
A post shared by Paloma Elsesser (@palomija) on
Her confidence has grown since then because she represents the woman that has been told that she’s too fat to do something. Women like her are becoming…
…role models and paving the way for others that have shied away from wearing certain things or taking certain risks because of their size.
“It’s the biggest honor as a model,” she says. “It means you’ve been able to solidify your place in the industry. And yet there are so many plus-sized models who’ve been around for 15 years who haven’t been afforded that opportunity.”
Here are some more plus size models spicing things up for the culture:
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