These Body Positive Icons Prove That ‘Fat Girls Can Do Whatever They Want’

July 29, 2016 / JCPenney

“That’s a pretty powerful thing for me, especially when you’ve been taught your entire life that you need to shrink or hide or disappear.”

So body positivity and advertising aren’t always necessarily the best match. After all, many companies care more about their bottom line than helping you feel good about your body.

But this body positive message is so different from what you usually get from clothing companies that we had to pass it on.

This campaign from JCPenney, Here I Am, features fat positive advocates and icons from different backgrounds taking center stage with moving stories that show exactly why fat positivity is such a beautiful thing.

Ashley Nell Tipton, the first designer to win Project Runway with a plus-size line; Jes Baker, best-selling author of Things No One Will Tell Fat Girls; Valerie Sagun, yoga practitioner and self-love activist; Mary Lambert, Grammy-nominated singer and songwriter; and Gabi Fresh, style blogger and designer, share a vibrant vision of what body positivity means.

They all have awful stories of struggling with fat shaming. But they also offer empowering accounts of learning to celebrate themselves in spite of society’s negativity.

As Nell Tipton puts it: “The only person who should be defining me is me.” And their definitions are powerful!

With Love,
The Editors at Everyday Feminism

Click for the Transcript

Jes Baker: Would my life be better if I were thinner? No, but it would be better if I wasn’t treated so poorly because I’m not.

Mary Lambert: I remember when I was ten, I wanted to be a singer, and I remember a family member telling me, “Sorry kid, you know, it’s not going to happen for you.”

Jes Baker: I’ve never been thin. As the fifth grader called “hippo,” that was a very scary thing for me, and something that I was spending my entire life trying to change.

Gabi Fresh: In high school, I was one of those girls who was like, “I would be so much prettier if I were thin. If I could just reach that one last level, my life would be perfect.”

Ashley Nell Tipton: I was a target for people to make fun of or, you know, bash. I didn’t know what was wrong with me, like, why was I so different?

Valerie Sagun: Yeah definitely, there was like the stereotype of yoga where you have to be like, kind of like, the skinny, perfect-body bleach blonde kind of woman. I definitely am not that.

Jes Baker: We’re countering a lifetime of learned hatred.

Valerie Sagun: You can’t love your body for what you hope it turns into without actively loving it for what it is today.

Ashley Nell Tipton: The only person who should be defining me is me.

Jes Baker: Do it. Fat girls can do whatever they want. There’s my book!

Valerie Sagun: You can do yoga. You can do rock-climbing.

Gabi Fresh: Fat girls can run. Fat girls can dance. Fat girls can have amazing jobs.

Ashley Nell Tipton: Are you ready for your jacket? It’s going to be really cool.

Gabi Fresh: We can walk runways. We can be on the cover of magazines. Wear stripes, bright colors.

Jes Baker: I thought I couldn’t wear a bikini. I can, and I love it.

Ashley Nell Tipton: We’re not shy. We’re not trying to hide. I’m beautiful. I am sexy. I am everything.

Jes Baker: There’s no ignoring this when it walks in the door. That’s a pretty powerful thing for me, especially when you’ve been taught your entire life that you need to hide, or shrink, or disappear.

Gabi Fresh: Even if I lost 100 pounds tomorrow, I would still be Gabi Fresh. I would still be the same person I am now.

Mary Lambert: My size is not an indicator of my worth. The bodies don’t need to change. The attitude does.

Ashley Nell Tipton: I’ve spent so many years feeling uncomfortable in my own skin. It’s time for me to be happy and never have to look back.

Gabi Fresh: So go out in a bikini to the beach. Go travel around the world. Hit on that guy you think is cute. You can be confident and feel good in your skin right now. Behind the scenes, about to—

Valerie Sagun: It’s really up to us to change the narrative and to share photos of ourselves, follow each other, and show each other that this is what women look like.

Ashley Nell Tipton: We are breaking the Internet, like that’s what we want to do.

Mary Lambert: Loving yourself is not a destination. It’s a journey.

Jes Baker: I am Jes Baker.

Mary Lambert: I’m Mary Lambert.

Gabi Fresh: I am Gabi Fresh.

Valerie Sagun: I’m Valerie Sagun

Ashley Nell Tipton: I’m Ashley Nell Tipton.

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