Tess Holliday: I’m going to start off with something easy. What do you enjoy most about modeling? And the fact that you’re a visibly fat model at that, what do you enjoy the most?

La’Shaunae Steward: Seeing myself in a light [that] people tell me I’m not able to do. People telling me that fat people who are over a certain size, telling us that we can’t be seen as beautiful and cute and attractive. I feel like when I’m on set, at shoots, is literally when I feel the best about myself. There’s a lot of the time where I feel really badly because of what I grew up around and having so much fat phobia [from] people in my family, and them telling me that I can’t do something like this once I got older. A lot of my childhood was guys telling me, “You have a really good taste in movies and music and clothes and stuff, but you’re not my type.” It was always that growing up. The guys I liked would send me notes back saying they were gay just because they didn’t like me. There would be girls who told me that I shouldn’t wear what they’re wearing because I’m not their size and stuff.

TH: Do you think modeling has helped those feelings of insecurity or made them worse?

LS: As a plus-size girl who’s a size 24, 26, I feel better at shoots when I’m glammed up and stuff, I guess. I know that I’m helping a lot of girls who don’t see a lot of black, fat girls in this. Plus-size girls over a size 20 in general, you don’t see a lot of us. The only two plus-size models right now who are over a size 20 and modeling are you and Enam Asiama. I literally don’t see anyone else our size doing this. It’s ridiculous because this industry is so, so big, and there’s not enough of us. I talk about this all day and people still aren’t listening to me, and it’s frustrating.

TH: All three of us should be the next fat Charlie’s Angels or Cheetah Girls!

LS: That would be a cute concept. We should do a shoot with different themes of the girls from movies who have been in all these movies, but the fat version!

TH: Obviously, the reason I used fat when I described you was because that’s how you describe yourself. How do you feel about the term for those who don’t know, and have you always felt that way or has it changed?

LS: Well, I guess everyone growing up saw the word as offensive. The more we’re represented in fashion or doing anything, like how Nicole Byer is an actress and how Monique is a comedian and now there’s us who are models. I feel like, as time went by, fat wasn’t a word used to hurt us anymore because we’re getting the same opportunities that thin people are. I feel like I don’t describe it right, but it just feels like the more we’re accepted, the less offensive it is.

TH: I think you described it perfectly! You’re getting work because of your talents and who you are, and you happen to be fat. People hate the word fat too, and that’s the best part because it’s like, why does it bother you so much? But it comes with plus-size models not wanting to be called plus-size and referring to themselves as curvy and how frustrating that is because it’s just another way to package being visibly outside of what’s considered the norm, and presenting to a brand and being like, “Well, I’m not too fat.”