If you have ever seen an issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine ever, then you know that the typical cover model is a size 0 with impossibly long legs and perfect skin. Or she is an actress or musician, size 0, with impossibly long legs and perfect skin. There isn’t much variation from month to month, year to year. Until now.
If you happen to catch the October issue of Cosmo UK (on newsstands on August 31), you will notice something very different: the cover girl this time around is plus-size model Tess Holliday. And it’s a pretty big deal.
Holliday isn’t just any model, though. She is a body positivity advocate. When the 33-year-old is not modeling or caring for her young children, she is shooting down body shamers left and right across all social media platforms.
She recently took to Instagram to announce the incredible news:
In her post, she wisely writes: “If I saw a body like mine on this magazine when I was a young girl, it would have changed my life & hope this does that for some of y’all.”
Countless girls and young women turn to the images that surround them in the media to learn how to handle themselves. Body shaming is sadly a very real part of life that many people have to endure. With positive role models who look like real people gracing the covers of magazines, as Holliday has just done, more women can feel better about their bodies.
No one is perfect — including those skinny models who normally appear on the covers of magazines. (Photoshop works wonders, people.) So the sooner everyone comes to accept this fact, the sooner we can all lead healthier lives and feel good about ourselves.
Congrats to Tess on this major accomplishment!
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