GettyGigi Hadid is widely considered one of the most beautiful women in the world. As a supermodel, she even makes a tidy living from her looks.
Yet, Gigi’s undeniable fashion credentials are just one tiny little manifestation of what it means to be a beautiful woman today – and one so-called plus-sized model is determined to prove it.
Meet Diana Sirokai, she’s on a mission to empower women of all shapes and sizes.
Supermodels may be held up as the embodiment of physical beauty today, but there are very few women out there who feel these celebrities are representative of us mere mortals.
21-year-old Sirokai, a model from London, is among those of us who feel underrepresented in fashion and beauty, and she’s doing something to change the goal posts of feminity.
Diana is recreating famous photoshoots herself. Most recently, she’s taken on the famous nude Stuart Weitzman spring 2017 footwear collection campaign featuring Gigi Hadid.
Captioning the side-by-side comparison, Sirokai explained she was ‘just wondering how a model my size would look on this’.
After her post went viral, Diana told Metro:
Gigi is such a stunning young woman. I think her beauty is mesmerizing and a lot of girls that look up to her feel like they could never be like that.
Gigi is an icon and my message was to show that you can be as good as her. We all look different and unique, you have to own it.
Diana hit headlines when she imitated Kim Kardashian’s famous white swimsuit photoshoot, captioning the picture, ‘WE ARE BOTH WOMEN with DIFFERENT BODIES’, to much praise from the Instagram jury.
While comparing your body to that of other women isn’t necessarily the best way to achieve confidence, the stunt does prove society should be more used to seeing women who look different alongside each other in fashion campaigns.
It’s something two Australian models know all too well, after they turned relentless trolling into a joint web-wide mission to work towards body positivity.
any.body_co/InstagramKate Wasley and Georgia Gibbs, best friends from Perth, share many things – modelling, a love of food and the outdoors – and, for all intents and purposes, they look pretty similar on paper.
Try telling that to the Instagram keyboard warriors who were so unable to see past their body shapes, they accused Georgia of photoshopping her friend to make herself appear thinner online.
Georgia is a UK size 6 and Kate is a UK size 16 – some people think this means they can’t be friends, at least not in the same square-shaped Instagram photograph.
Horrified by the ignorant implication that one friend’s shape was in some way more desirable or aspirational than the other – and how all women secretly wish the worst for each other – the pair decided to take action against damaging societal beauty perceptions.
Kate and Georgia have now started a social campaign called Any BODY to change the way we look at women’s bodies and how we value certain aesthetics.
Along with the tagline ‘Love Any Body’, the pair share an empowering message, much like Diana’s.
Speaking to UNILAD, Kate recalled her reaction to the trolling, saying:
I was just shocked at how people came to that conclusion in the first place… It just really ignited a fire in me that something had to be done regarding body image and including different body types side by side on social media.
I’m just representing myself and things that society labels as flaws. I want to show people that cellulite is normal, it can occur in bodies of any size.
You can watch what Georgia had to say on This Morning too:
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Meanwhile, Gigi herself, a stalwart of the 21st-century fashion industry, is trying to shun stereotypical and blinkered beauty standards from within.
Appearing in the LOVE Magazine’s progressive fashion advent calendar, this year themed ‘Stay Strong’, Hadid boasted some unshaven underarms to show even models grow pubic hair – in case you didn’t already know thanks to GCSE biology class.
You can watch the so-called offending video shoot below:
Gigi, like Paris Jackson and Emily Ratajkowski – who was criticised by Piers Morgan of all people for being ‘unfeminist‘ – have all suffered at the hands of damaging beauty perceptions.
When, oh, when will people stop being freaked out by strong women who do what they want with their bodies?
Shaved or unshaven, plus-sized or not.
A former emo kid who talks too much about 8Chan meme culture, the Kardashian Klan, and how her smartphone is probably killing her. Francesca is a Cardiff University Journalism Masters grad who has done words for BBC, ELLE, The Debrief, DAZED, an art magazine you’ve never heard of and a feminist zine which never went to print.