Photo illustration courtesy of junior Linnaea Marks.
Despite the seemingly inevitable slip up of political incorrectness or accidental offensive comments made by influencers today, many teen role models prioritize representation and health awareness on their feeds. This is inarguably a step in the right direction toward body positivity, but do these influencers go far enough in normalizing normal bodies and people? Expressions investigates if “plus sized” influencers really represent the plus sized community, or if they’re just more beautiful versions of normal sized people.
“When Sienna Mae Gomez first came about, I thought she was super uplifting and I admired her for her emphasis on embracing different body types that aren’t covered enough in the media,” said junior Hannah Stephens. “But when she became super popular, especially because the environment on TikTok pushes influencers to make unique content to continue to stand apart from competing influencers, in my opinion she took her ‘brand’ too far and emphasized the wrong idea in her merch. I know she is only 16 and is under a lot of pressure from her followers (who are mainly other sensitive teens), but telling others to ‘stop looking at my rolls’ is a misleading statement to advertise as a way to show support for body positivity.”
So there’s definitely a gray area on what constitutes body positivity. Recently, Gomez has gotten a lot of flack for her merchandise, especially apparel that depicted the phrase, “Have you eaten today?” People questioned whether questions like that and eating disorder concerns are appropriate taglines for Gomez to profit off of.
When asked about if plus sized models and influencers are accurately representing normal and plus sized people, Stephens added that “there has been a complete lack of representation for the plus sized community on all platforms, as yes, almost all the influencers representing them are still on the smaller side of the spectrum. The truth is, whether we want to admit it or not, our culture still doesn’t want to embrace body types that differ from impossible standards created through social media.”
Despite this very apparent lack of representation of the plus sized (and normal looking) community among influencers, body positive influencers are still empowering and help millions of people boost their own confidence every day. Here are a few noteworthy examples:
Barbie Ferreira is one of the most famous plus sized models in the world, with an Instagram following of 2.7 million. What’s so great about Ferreira and her feed is that never does she feel the need to talk about herself as a plus sized model. A very unfortunate reality is that many plus sized influencers feel obligated to base their entire online presence around being plus sized, but Ferreira is entirely unapologetic.
Jessica Blair is a fashion-oriented influencer who focuses mainly on body confidence and how to dress for different comfort levels and body types. Blair’s account is perfect because she has a really good eye for fashion, and with a body positive spin, she can help people gain the confidence to wear the clothes they’ve always wanted but didn’t feel comfortable with before.
Clara Guillem is an influencer who talks a lot about eating disorder recovery and self love. What sets her apart is her relatability with the average sized person. She discusses the stigma around bloating, body hair, and common insecurities. Junior Logan Johnson said “I followed Clara because I find body positivity really important, especially to teenagers now who become insecure from seeing perfectly posed models on social media. She is very open about her past eating disorders and current mental health issues and gives her followers encouragement and tips to become healthy and confident without taking unhealthy risks. Seeing her posts make me genuinely feel better about myself and I hope that other influencers will follow her lead to promote body positivity.”
