Success is sizeless

Two things happened recently that sparked a fire under me to open up to you. The first thing happened Saturday at Lane Bryant’s NFL shopping event with Reah Norman of Plus Model Magazine and Styled By Reah.

As I was chatting with Reah [what I wore that day], an adorable little girl walked up to her and smiled with big admiring eyes. The way the little girl seemed to look at her was profoundly powerful for me. In a way, I saw myself in that blonde 9 year old girl and I remembered that when I was that age, I didn’t have any plus size role models.

Like many of you, I’ve been overweight since I was a little girl and when I was growing up, being overweight meant that you didn’t matter and you would never be worthy of love until you lost the excess weight. I believed that I would never be a singer, an actress, a lawyer or the worlds biggest Barbie collector. As I became an adult, my dreams were crushed over and over each time I was told I couldn’t live the life I imagined. But even the simple dreams, like having a boyfriend who loved me, being treated nicely by friends who really cared about me and one day having a family of my own were things I would never have. I didn’t know I had the power to pursue my goals and actually achieve them until I was well into my twenties. But more on my journey to a tier one law school another day.

For the first time in my life, I deeply felt the value that successful plus size women have as role models for young girls and women of all ages. There is nothing more empowering than witnessing the sparkle in a child’s eyes as they learn that success is sizeless.

As many of you might already know, Tess Munster was recently signed by Milk Model Management. This is a major coup for women of all shapes and sizes because it means the world is changing. It shouldn’t be news because we SHOULD be living in a world where beauty is sizeless, but it is news. It is earth shattering news.

While I hope my readers come in all shapes and sizes, I cater to my curvy and plus size girls because I know that what I have to say may not be relevant to thin women yet. I say this not to alienate my skinny girlfriends, or have them think they don’t matter. I look forward to a day when I don’t have to label my Youtube videos “plus size, or curvy”. I hope for a day when little girls look up to women of all shapes and sizes for life and style inspiration because we are more than our size. We shouldn’t box ourselves into a stereotype, we should focus on living a life that is truly genuine because only then, will we find fulfillment.

Let these powerful, successful women speak to the little girl inside you, no matter your size be it a 2 or a 32. Their achievements are a lesson to all of us who want what everyone wants – a life satisfied by hard work, happiness and success.

Find Reah Norman here:

Find Tess Munster here:

I aspire to be a tenth of a percent of the female leaders that Reah and Tess are.

Who inspires YOU?

If you’d like to see more posts or videos like this, please don’t hesitate to let me know in the comments below.

If you believe that Style is Sizeless, click here!

Thank you,

Jolene