Body Positivity - #TRT

Guest blogger Jordan here! I’m dropping in on Dree’s weekly #TrendReportTuesday to share one of my favorite non-trend trends – body positivity. While I tend to take issue with calling this a trend, I do think there’s a wave of change happening in the media and otherwise that technically qualifies this school of thought as “trendy.”

The average American women now wears a size 16, and 67% of women in the United States wear a size 14 or larger. With those numbers in mind consider this: Until this year, women considered “plus size,” made up only 2% of media images. Refinfery29’s landmark #SeeThe67% campaign aimed to show these women proportionally represented in media, and they worked together with various digital outlets to create stock images and content that would recognize this woefully underrepresented majority. We highly recommend checking that out here.

A segment that was once considered niche has now gone mainstream. InStyle Magazine has a recurring monthly column penned by supermodel Ashley Graham, and brands that aren’t considered plus are featuring curve models in their campaigns. Take Outdoor Voices for example, who has heavily featured both curve model Barbie Ferreira and The 12ish Style Blogger Katie Sturino on their social media feeds this year.

Bottom line? Don’t call it a niche, because 67% of women does not a niche make.