Hunter McGrady is plus-size fashion’s latest darling. She’s been popping up everywhere, in Lane Bryant ads, Haute Look’s website, and most recently, the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue where she was labeled the “curviest” model of the bunch.
Now that she’s finally got your attention, she’d like to clarify a few common misnomers about what it’s like to be a plus-size model.
1. Yes, Plus-Size Models Work Out
“I think people think that we can get away with looking however we want. They’re like, ‘Whatever, she’s a curve model. She doesn’t have to work out, she doesn’t have to eat well.’ Which isn’t true. I have a personal trainer, I eat clean. But on the other spectrum, there is a pressure to have the Coke bottle body, to be really tight. Someone’s always going to want you to be thicker.”
2. Plus-Size Models Work Just As Hard As Straight-Size Models
“I show up, I do the same job as everyone else, I get paid the same, everything is the same.”
3. Plus-Size Isn’t *Code* for Overweight
And most shockingly of all, she drops the bomb that plus-size models technically start at size 6.
“Fourteen is what really works in the plus-size industry, but it starts at six; I mean, that’s insane!”
That is insane. Size 6 is a pretty average in America so to call that plus-size is just ridiculous. In fact, Hunter McGrady first entered the industry as size 2 when she was 15-years-old and even then she was being told that she was too big and that her hips too wide. Absurd.
The now 23-year-old McGrady joins a growing group of plus-size models who are becoming household names. We couldn’t be more proud! Watch Hunter McGrady’s full interview on Pretty Unfiltered below.
