Tess Holliday on why bigger women SHOULDN'T cover up

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Tess Holliday is first size 22 woman to be signed to a modelling agency
29-year-old from LA has hundreds of thousands of followers around globe
She talks to FEMAIL about being bullied, loving curves and Katie Hopkins

By Caroline Mcguire for MailOnline

Published: 18:07 EST, 22 April 2015 | Updated: 11:52 EST, 23 April 2015

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Tess Holliday is a force to be reckoned with.

The plus size supermodel is single-handedly changing the face of fashion after becoming the first ever size 22 (UK size 26) woman to be signed to a modelling agency.

The 29-year-old, formerly of Mississippi but now living in Los Angeles, wanted to be a model for years but was turned down because of her 5ft 4in height and size - 18st 5lb (250lbs).

Tess Holliday is a size 22 plus size model who is the face of the new summer campaign for Yours Clothing

But after forging ahead on her own and gradually building an enormous social media presence, with 625,000 followers on her Instagram page alone, she became too important for agencies to miss and earlier this year she was signed by MILK.

When I meet Tess at a hotel in central London, where she is getting ready for an event to celebrate her new ad campaign for Yours Clothing, she exudes self-confidence and glamour.

Sat in a comfy chair while she applies her signature Fifties-style make-up, the first thing that strikes you about Tess is that she dresses differently to almost any size 22 woman you have probably ever met.

While most women who tip the scales at 18 stone cover up their body any way they can, Tess loves to embrace her body.

Tess loves to embrace her body and show off her enormous range of tattoos

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Despite it being early April, she is making the most of the unseasonably warm weather by wearing a hot pink mini dress with bare legs that show off her range of tattoos.

Head to her Instagram profile and you’ll find more of the same – Tess in bikinis, proudly showing off her fuller figure.

When I mention this to her, she says: ‘I like to wear bigger clothing that’s flowing and fun but also to wear bathing suits and shirts and show off my body.

‘It’s about taking risks and trying things you wouldn’t normally try.

‘I think plus sized women have a tendency to cover up in things like cardigans and other clothes that hide the body but when you’re trying to cover it up then you’re taking away from your shape and your good features.

Tess says one of her idols is Miss Piggy, who she has an inking of on her right arm

‘It’s important to put yourself out there and wear something that scares you.’

‘As a rule, I don’t find that there are things that I find difficult to wear - I think there are some things that I love more than other things but I definitely pretty much wear anything and make it work.

‘The only thing difficult to wear is maybe something that’s not that cute.’

I ask if there is anything that she would change about herself if she could, a question that usually prompts a list of physical features from women, and she says: ‘Think more before I speak.’

It is this attitude to her body that is what draws people to Tess – she has hundreds of thousands of followers from around the world who get in contact with her every day.

Unlike many fans, Tess’s share their every emotional hurdle with her and their power as a group is strong – the fans are what got her signed to an agency.

Tess is hoping that it is a very small step for the fashion industry that will eventually see the whole business changing their attitude to larger women.

She says: 'I think that it has given more women hope that maybe they can follow their dreams, not just in the modelling world but in general.

‘I’ve always been very vocal about how difficult it is to be a model in my industry - being as short and the size that I am and heavily tattooed.

‘It’s hard to get people to pay attention to you and be serious about you.

‘I think hopefully over time it will change things but immediately it has mostly been with my followers.’

While Tess first got attention on social media for her size, the way that she interacts with her followers is what has kept them there.

While Tess first got attention on social media for her size and now boasts 625,000 followers on Instagram

Nothing is too private to be shared if it can make a difference in someone else’s life, whether it is her sharing how she was bullied or sexually abused when she was younger.

She says: ‘I’ve been very open about being bullied at school, being sexually assaulted and my mother being disabled and paralysed.

‘I’ve told everything about my crazy childhood and the life I’ve had, including being a single mum and what that’s like.

‘I think people want to be able to relate to someone and I consider them my friends from around the world.’

Tess is one of many women who believes that fashion magazines and the clothing industry as a whole is very damaging to young women, especially those who don’t fit the normal idea of beauty.

She started a movement online called #effyourbeautystandards, encouraging women and girls to be proud of their bodies no matter what size they are.

Tess believes that the fashion industry has a 'gross and ridiculous' attitude to beauty

She says: ‘We’re so obsessed with figures because there’s a multimillion dollar diet industry out there and we’ve been taught that unless you look a certain way then you don’t matter, which just isn’t true.

‘Every time you open a magazine it tends to be a certain size, skin colour and hair colour… where does that leave the rest of us.

‘It has a lot to do with the fashion industry and it’s gross and ridiculous. I don’t have a nice way of putting that.

‘But I think things are changing - seeing prominent figures in our media like Laverne Cox who are going against the grain and against society’s standards of beauty is really important.

‘I wish there were more people represented fairly in society but there aren’t right now.

‘Things are slowly changing but whether I’ll still be alive when it is in the place it should be… we’ll have to see.’

Tess often gets messages from fans telling her they have tried on a dress or bathing suit for the first time because of her

Tess doesn’t consider herself a role model, but it’s clear that she is passionate about what she does and how it helps people.

Women get in touch with her on a regular basis to tell her how much her attitude has helped them take charge of their lives again.

She says: ‘People come to me all the time and say I’ve changed their life and say because of me they’ve tried a bathing suit or a dress for the first time, or they’ve taken a photos of themselves for the first time in 25 years.

Fans like to ask for items of clothing from Tess

‘Others say that they have left their abusive husband or that they married the love of their life, I have crazy stories from around the world.

‘But I am not taking the credit for any of that - what those women are seeing is that they are not alone and they’re seeing someone who looks and feels like them and who understands what they’re going through.

‘I think that part of being a community that I unintentionally created by being vocal has impacted a lot of people – we all want to feel like we belong and that somebody cares.’

While there are the fans, there are also the mega fans, and with her niche look, Tess has attracted more than her fair share of those.

She says: ‘The last time I shot an ad campaign with Yours Clothing, I wore a gingerbread onesie that you sleep in - it’s my favourite thing and I still own it.

‘But this guy keeps emailing through my website asking to buy it and he has offered to pay me $500 to buy my onesie, but I can’t sell it because I want to keep the onesie… maybe if I could get another one.

‘I get people asking to buy my knickers or my tights and some who send me their hair, but that has got to be the craziest - who would think that somebody would want your gingerbread onesie?’

With this level of attention, she inevitably gets the trolls too though, although Tess says that she never pays any attention to the negative comments people write – she has the thickest of skin, an asset that she tries to pass on to all of her followers.

Tess says: ‘I think it’s important that if you’re unhappy with yourself and unhappy with your body to look at the people you surround yourself with and make sure they are supportive and love and care about you for the right reasons.

‘Because I know that for a while I had a group of friends that weren’t so great and at the time I didn’t feel great about myself but then I realised that they were constantly making fun of me, making jokes about my body and making me feel bad about myself.

And It wasn’t until I realised that I deserved better and I should be around people who were nice and positive and who felt the way I did that my relationship with my body started to change.

This seems like an opportune moment for me to ask what Tess, an advocate of loving your body the way you are, feels about Katie Hopkins - the mouthpiece who has made a living out of targeting overweight people.

Tess has never heard about Katie, but when I tell her about the reality star’s opinions on obese men and women, her jaw drops.

Katie Hopkins tells plus-size model that fat is NOT beautiful

Tess believes that Katie Hopkins needs to be better educated on obesity

She says: ‘I think she needs a better education, to be honest, that’s ridiculous. What does she expect people to do about their genes, their ancestry and the way they were born.

‘Also, what people do with their bodies is nobody’s business, so if she doesn’t want to be around fat people, she should probably go and live in a bubble on an island.

‘Success is the best revenge though - a life lived well is the best way to come back when people say things like that.

‘So if someone says that they aren’t happy with you being fat, you should just be happier with who you are.

'Being big doesn’t necessarily mean being unhealthy - health isn’t a mandate and size isn’t an indicator of health, we are all on our personal journeys with whatever is considered health and it should be respected.'

As I mentioned at the beginning, Tess oozes confidence and after talking to her for a while, you realise it isn’t just a front – she really thinks it.

Behind the scenes: The plus size models changing fashion

Tess says that she first becoming totally confident with her body after doing her first naked photoshoot

I ask her how she became this way and she replies that as well as the birth of her son and meeting her fiancé, it was when she did her first naked photoshoot.

She says: ‘Obviously seeing myself in professional photos doesn’t hurt, but it has been the last six years that I have started to feel really good about myself.

'When I did my first photo-shoot naked - about three years ago I saw myself nude without Photoshop and thought, “I don’t look that bad.”'

And with that, I get her final thoughts on the how successful she has become – just as I am about to leave, she adds: ‘If someone had told me a few years ago that I would be a model and someone would pay to take photos of in lingerie, I would have thought that was the stupidest f***ing idea.’

Tess is modelling the new summer clothing range for www.YoursClothing.co.uk