fbpx
Aesthetics Influencer Spotlight Interviews

Midsize Fashion: How To Navigate Your Body Confidence

Updated on

When we look at the fashion industry, it is scarce of diversity. Whether that is in race or body type. It seems like many brands aren’t in the mindset to have their clothing be inclusive to all. But exclusive to some. For years, we’ve seen plus size and midsize women get pushed out of the industry and be told that we are too big to be “fashionable”. Well, they’re wrong. Midsize fashion has taken a positive rise and that along with it has led to a powerful body positivity/neutrality movement. Teaching women how to navigate their body confidence in wearing the clothes they want to wear. 

I got to sit down and have a chat with Digital Creator, Emily, about this topic. On Tik Tok she goes by @Emily.does.fashion. A midsize content creator herself, she uses her platform to help other women become comfortable in their bodies. Learning to appreciate how they look. And how to make yourself look good and feel confident in the body shape you got. Also, giving brand reviews to help weed out brands that aren’t so midsize friendly. She happily agreed to be interviewed for this week’s blog post and I can’t wait for you to read what she has to say. 

EMILY.DOES.FASHION

Emily is a Fashion, Body Acceptance Content Creator. Currently residing in Santa Cruz, California. She is a master’s student at UC Santa Cruz working on water quality. Trying to better California’s water quality. Her Tik Tok and Instagram content is mainly focused on fashion reviews  and body acceptance. Continuing to find more ways to merge the two worlds. 

"I heard something the other day. I was watching a TikTok by one of my mutuals Jess. She's great. But she said that if you're in, like a fat body or like a mid-sized body, you're not a failed skinny person. And that really hit me." -Emily

WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO START YOUR TIK TOK?

I think it started as just kind of like a fashion thing. I started in 2020, just started making daily outfit videos. I’ve always liked clothes, I’ve always liked fashion. And it was a really nice thing to do during early pandemic when we were all at home, like nothing else to do. I had just moved to Santa Cruz and I felt pretty isolated and it was a hard time and I feel like social media was a great outlet for me. I can have a hobby and connect with people virtually and not be isolated. 

Yeah, I can try to pinpoint a certain moment when I feel like I changed or shifted towards more realistic reviews and talking more about my body. I think it may have been when I did my first realistic review in December 2020. This brand went up to a size large and that didn’t even fit me. And yeah, talking about how this is not all size inclusive and really trying to be relatable to people and show, it’s okay. It’s okay if you don’t fit into what a company deems is a size large or a medium or small or extra large, Whatever size they say it’s like you’re not failing if you don’t fit into a company’s size or number.

THE INTERVIEW

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR JOUNRNEY WITH YOUR BODY?

Emily:

Yeah, I would say it’s definitely still a work in progress. It’s something that I’m actively working on every single day. And it’s something that although I try to project in this very positive body acceptance message, and I think that’s important to keep this positive face on, it’s definitely something I still struggle with. And I get people saying, like, I wish I was as confident as you or I don’t know how you do it. And I try to emphasize to people that this is still something that I’m actively working on, and I still have bad body days.

I think my body acceptance journey really started probably in 2020 when I started doing TikToks. In the last five years or so, I’ve gained quite a bit of weight, which has been good in many ways, because I feel like it’s finally living in my own body and I’m finally treating it how I think it should be. And I’m not doing really harmful diets or I’m not doing over exercising, which I really used to do.

HOW DO YOU GO ABOUT FASHION IN THIS BEAUTY STANDARD BUILT INDUSTRY?

Emily:

It’s hard. It is really hard. I think it’s becoming better. I don’t think we’re nearly where we should be, but I know even in the last couple of years. When I’ve been heavily on social media and been really looking at kind of where fashion advertising is going and marketing is going, I do think we’ve seen a shift.  In  the types of models people are using and I think a lot of, like, really big brands. I think Arie (American Eagle)  does a pretty good job. I think the limited amount of representation that we’re starting to see now has definitely helped me finally seeing clothes that aren’t just on one body type but also one race or like, one gender.

 And it is hard. I do fall into some marginalized groups, but there are certainly people who fall into more marginalized groups than myself. And I try to be really aware of that, and I often think if I feel underrepresented, I can’t imagine how other people feel and I don’t know, it makes me really sad and it makes me really discouraged, but I hope that the progress we’re seeing continues.

Midsize fashion

WHEN IT COMES TO LEARNING TO ACCEPT YOUR BODY, WHAT BUMPS DID YOU ENCOUNTER ALONG THE WAY?

Emily:

It’s a great question. As much as I talk about it on my page and stuff, I still really spiral when clothes that I’ve owned for like a year don’t fit me. If I’ve gained any amount of weight and I try on clothes that I bought recently and they don’t fit, that makes me spiral. I’m really trying actively to fight against this, but I still fall into the mindset of like, “oh, well, I’ll just keep clothes that are smaller because I’ll just lose weight to fit into them”. And I think that’s such a toxic mindset. I don’t blame anyone who thinks that it’s natural. It’s such a damaging thing to your mental health to have constant reminders in your life that you should be smaller. And I’m really trying to get rid of those, but it still causes me to take dips.

 A lot of the people around me at my school are like a very different body type than me.I’m in a geology program and I feel like it’s kind of like a stereotype for geologists to be very fit and very thin and very of a certain body type, which there’s whole issues there which I won’t get into. But that’s been hard for me to feel like everyone around me is smaller and I do notice it. I do think about it. I think subconsciously, even more than I realized that I’m just a different body shape than others. And that’s been hard. I’m really trying not to compare myself to others, but it’s hard not to. I mean, I feel like as humans, it’s so common for us to want to compare subconsciously, we compare ourselves to others, even if we know it’s bad. That’s caused me a lot of the times to take a dip in my mental health.

WHAT HABITS DID YOU HAVE TO BREAK OR FORM IN ORDER TO BUILD BODY CONFIDENCE?

Emily:

I mentioned a habit earlier,  trying to stop comparing myself to others, and this is a terrible habit. So I’m admitting kind of a dirty secret that I really shouldn’t do. But I do look at other people’s bodies a lot, and I don’t know if that’s just because I think about it a lot because of the content that I’m making. But I do a lot of comparisons. I tell people and I tell myself people are worth so much more than their bodies, and I don’t judge others for their bodies. But it’s always in terms of how I compare it to someone smaller than me, that’s always how it is. It’s not good for my mental health. I don’t feel good about thinking about someone’s body before anything else. I need to stop that because it only hurts my own mental health. But I’m constantly comparing, like, sizes of stomachs and things like that, and I really want to stop that because it really just hurts me.

 

Another thing, I’m better at this, but I do need to. It’s kind of a common tip, but just get rid models or influencers off of your social media feed that are actively hurting your own self image. I don’t think it’s bad at all to have a wide range of sizes that you look at on social media. You should do whatever makes you happy and whatever you want to see. But if it’s constantly causing you to feel bad about yourself, it’s good to get those kind of people off of your page. 

I used to and I am definitely changing this. I used to do a lot of body checking of myself, like in the mirror every night before I get in the shower. I feel like I would only look at the things I didn’t like about myself. I would only look at my stomach or I would only look at my soft jawline or other things that I just really hated about myself and just fix it on them. When I look at myself in the mirror, if I have to focus on something, I try to focus on the things that I like and just don’t even look at or feel just, like, neutral about the rest of my body and not even think about it. And that helps a lot.

Me:

I definitely agree with that last one. I think something I had  to stop was every single day in the morning I would  weigh myself. And it got really bad because I was just always succeeding on the number. It would always fluctuate. I stopped weighing myself every single day. I still sometimes weigh myself every now and then, but then I’ll see the number and I’ll merely get off and I’ll just be like, It’s fine. I try to brush it off because I’m just like, it’s not the worst thing in the world. I’m a growing person.

Emily:

That’s the damage of having this one type of beauty standard is because, I mean, you said it, right. People are built so differently. We’re not all the same. We’re just not meant to be the same. I work out when I want to, just for fun and I eat whatever I want now. I never calorie count. And if I’m hungry, I never think, like, I only have to eat or I can only eat three meals a day, Or I can only eat this amount. I’m hungry, I’m going to eat and I’m this size. And so I feel like I’ve gotten to a place where it’s like this is where my body’s meant to be.

midsize fashion

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE YOUNG WOMEN STRUGGLING WITH THEIR BODY IMAGE?

Emily:

Try to decouple your worth from your body. It’s kind of like jumping to 100 because I think that’s one of the hardest things to do because it’s so easy to associate our physical form with our worth as a person. But I do think that if you’re working towards that goal, if you’re trying to really actively value yourself in other ways. Besides your weight or whatever physical part of yourself, I really do think you’ll get into a better mind space and much healthier sounds cliche, but if people are judging you, that’s their own problem. You’ve got to be true to yourself. You’ve got to work on accepting and loving yourself without external validation. And that’s something I feel like that’s my biggest sticking point. 

 

It’s really hard to decouple negative things that people who you love and who you’re close to from yourself. But I think you have to try in any way you can, even if it’s cutting out people, toxic people in your life. Just trying to surround yourself in positive messages, like positive friends, positive social media, positive clothing brands, just things that will bring you joy and won’t bring you down and won’t attack who you are as a person. And I really like what you said. People who won’t try to minimize you because I do feel like, especially for female presenting people, that’s what we’re told to do is minimize in every single way possible. I mean, not only in our weight and our size, but in the way we speak, how much we say. And I think that it’s important to really actively try to fight against that, which is hard.

 

And I think as a collective, we’re really trying to change that. But don’t let yourself be minimized.

THANK YOU FOR READING !

I’ve been watching Emily’s Tik Toks for a couple years now. She is such a genuine and open person. One of my inspirations for doing this type of content. The way she motivates and inspires other young women is just beautiful. I knew that during AAPI (Asian American and Pacific Islander ) Heritage Month  was the perfect time to showcase Emily. She is such a great content creator. And I’m so happy that I was able to interview her for this week’s post.  You can find Emily on Instagram , @emily.does.fashion, and @emilydoesfashion on Tik Tok. Go check out Emily on all her platforms!  

Instagram

Don’t forget to share and check out my other posts. If you wanna talk more about this week’s post or any other post, shoot me a DM on Instagram!  Follow me on all my socials to know when I post a new blog. Also, follow my Facebook page! If you didn’t know I have a shop! Head over there and check out the essential oils, perfumes, and other goodies.  Don’t forget to share and leave a comment down below! Welp, until next time!

Join the T.A & Co. Community ! Weekly Emails

Follow me on Instagram  TikTok Twitter Facebook for more content!

Instagram Facebook Twitter Linkedin

Check out my recent posts!

PinLinkedIn