This model’s secret to success is one we all need to hear
It’s no secret that we’re madly in love with model Denise Bidot. From her rad-as-heck #NotSorry unretouched swimsuit campaign for Swimsuits For All, to her super-smart response to being called “plus-size,” to that time she took a teen girl on a “love your body” shopping spree, Bidot crushes it on the regular. She’s also a history-maker, the first plus-size model to walk two New York Fashion Week runways for straight-size brands. So when Bidot has something to say, you better believe we’re all ears.
Recently, she spoke to The Cut about her relationship with her appearance and she dropped some major body positivity wisdom on us. Below, some of our fave quotes.
How she learned from her mother’s image struggles
“My mom struggled with her weight so much growing up. I watched her go from a size 2 to a size 22. I just kept seeing her try all these unhealthy ways to lose weight and struggle to be something she wasn’t meant to be. I knew early on that I wasn’t willing to compromise that way.”
How a Craigslist ad was the beginning of her body positivity journey
“I saw a post on Craigslist that said, ‘If you love your body, come try out.’ So I said, You know what? I do love myself. Submit! It ended up being in a segment on The Tyra Banks Show that was encouraging body empowerment and featured a girl who had body dysmorphia. They made me go out on national television and walk the catwalk in just a bra and panties. It was just the refresher that I needed.”
On using her fashion-insider status to help her daughter love herself
“I bring my daughter to set sometimes just so she can see the industry from the inside. She would see girls from my agency, and then she would see them in a store or on a billboard and say, ‘So-and-so doesn’t look like that!’ It’s a good reminder that there’s lashes, extensions, Photoshop, and huge production going on behind every image.”
Why it was important for her to do the #NotSorry unretouched campaign
“I’d never worked with Swimsuits for All before, and after the shoot my agent said they wanted to know how I felt about the images being released unretouched. I’m a woman. I have stretch marks, I have cellulite. There are a lot of times when I’m talking about body positivity, but at the end of the day, the images that people see are still retouched. It was my moment to kind of live what I speak.”
We highly rec checking out the rest of Bidot’s words (plus the GORG snaps of this girl) on The Cut. Thank you, thank you, thank you Denise Bidot, for being an inspiration to us all.
Trail-blazing model Denise Bidot has a super-smart response to being called plus-size
Model Denise Bidot took this teen on a love-your-body shopping spree
[Images via Instagram]
