In her recent issue with Cosmopolitan UK, Tess Holliday —supermodel, author, and body positive advocate with a reach of 1.6 million Instagram followers — opened up about her mental-health issues, as well as a night she was raped.
According to Independent UK, Holliday revealed in the issue that she didn't even realize that the incident was rape. “I was into him, but I didn’t want to have sex. He forced himself onto me," the outlet wrote.
In the issue, the model also revealed that she was in "the worst mental health state of her life," from January 2017 until spring of this year.
Regarding her body, Holliday said she wishes she had loved herself a lot sooner, before launching the #effyourbeautystandards Instagram account and campaign.
She started the account in response to body-shaming trolls. “I was angry and sad that people kept commenting on my pictures saying, ‘You’re too fat to wear that!’ or ‘Cover up! No one wants to see that!’" she told the magazine. "And then one night I was lying in bed and thought, ‘F*** that!’ So I posted an image with four photographs of myself wearing things that fat women are often told we ‘can’t wear’, and encouraged others to do the same."
People on Twitter cheered for Tess' Cosmo UK cover, proud to see her serving face and body flawlessly!
Do I have any UK friends who is willing to get this and send it to me? I'll send you the $$. I'm literally crying because this! Seeing someone with a body like mine on @Cosmopolitan is the most amazing feeling! #TessHoliday #effyourbeautystandards #bodypositivity https://t.co/vS6CrIUXCA
This user questioned how different life would have been had they grown up seeing women of all sizes represented:
@Tess_Holliday @CosmopolitanUK Trying to figure out how different my life and self-image would be if I had grown up seeing women of all sizes represented like this. https://t.co/rvN13dba74
User @StacyFitz was excited to see Cosmo feature a "plus sized Queen" and TBH, we couldn't agree more:
@Tess_Holliday @plusBKLYN @CosmopolitanUK Wow! Congratulations, Tess! That's awesome! So happy I've followed you for a while and I couldn't be more thrilled to see Cosmo feature a plus sized Queen! https://t.co/PlPywoqTF7
People expressed how important it is to see representation like Tess in media and on magazine covers...
How many young women would have been out enjoying life knowing they're beautiful as they are, rather than crying over why they don't look like they "should", if photos like this were more prevalent? https://t.co/yhvnuWwRFG
...And that body diversity isn't exclusive to one size, shape, color, or sexual orientation.
More body diversity in media please. That includes women, men and non-binary. https://t.co/FyfLi8q5qG