Image plus clothes7/3/2023 Some could argue that this is more than a tad exploitative towards overweight women, playing on their body insecurities as much as the standard skinny girl ads plastered all over Vogue. You don’t have to be a financial wizard to realize that magazines’ or fashion brands’ use of overweight women is often more about improving bottom lines than improving body images. Sometimes, they want someone with black hair, blue eyes,” she says. If you take it too personally, it can be offensive. “In the modeling world, it’s a little more difficult to be in the skin you’re in because clients want a certain type. Albeit without mentioning any specific weight issues, Schenk admits that modeling can take its emotional toll. This financial focus appears to have guided Schenk through the rejections that are part of the relentless cycle of casting calls. “If your client hires you and tells you to dress up in a chicken suit and dance, you do it. ![]() As much as she relishes the role of body positive spokeswoman, she’s got to pay for college. This is a point that Schenk herself speaks about quite openly. Moments like these are reminders that modeling is first and foremost a business, not an instrument for social change. “I don’t think I should,” she says and the handler concurs. When Schenk mentions that she is vocal when clients have asked her to do things that make her feel uncomfortable on photo shoots, I ask her for examples and she declines to respond. She says she met her husband two and half years ago through a mutual friend and that she’d “rather he stay out of the media.” The Wilhelmina rep adds, “I think it is the only thing we don’t want to talk about.” That is to be expected of a young woman who finished high school at age 15, is set to begin Pepperdine University in the fall with a major in international business marketing, and, lest we forget, has already walked down the aisle. She is clearly savvy and seems far more composed and polished than the run of the mill 18-year-old. Schenk radiates a cheerful ambition, but is also very careful with her responses. I cannot tell if Schenk is so rosy because that’s who she is or because she has a rep right next to her. I say that as someone who was an overweight child, who was told by her doctors her health was at risk but only needed to look at other girls to realize I stood out in a bad way. The absence of any mention of weight concerns is glaring. “But then I grew six inches and curved out.” I had braces and glasses and really bad facial acne,” she says with a laugh. However, while Schenk says she has always been “curvy,” she does not cite weight as the reason she was in need of a boost. She says her mother got her involved in modeling at the age of 14 because she needed a “bit of an ego boost.” It really helps seeing women responding positively, even if I am not fully confident or accepting of my own body.” “I still have a long way to go on the path to body acceptance, but if I can help other women get a little further on their path then that’s all that matters. ![]() “I’ve always had a little bit of body issues,” she says, but without dwelling on it for more than a few seconds. Whatever makeup has been applied for the Fox News interview she did just before we meet perfectly highlights Schenk’s warmly beautiful green eyes. Schenk is beaming when we meet in person in New York City. These moments do not seem to effect actual change in terms of who gets the magazine covers 95 percent of the time, what sizes fashion houses design for, and, most importantly, what types of body are promoted as “sexy” or merely “acceptable.” In fact, we’ve already spilled ink over it this year with the Lane Bryant #ImNoAngel campaign and Sports Illustrated’s first use of a plus-size model in its (in)famous swimsuit issue.Įvery time, I hope this is it, the moment that gets magazines or designers to stop treating super-thin women as the default for feminine beauty.īut so far, it seems these occasions are just another excuse to make the same arguments about the need for improving body images and putting forth more “realistic” women (a term that is nearly as fraught as “plus size”). We’ve seen this flash in the pan of support before whenever the token not-thin girl is placed on the cover of a magazine, given a spot on the runway, or has snagged a campaign.
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