Gabi Fresh

Blogger Gabi Fresh was on NBC's Today show talking about the now viral photos of herself and other plus-size women in bikinis. It is exciting to see plus-size women daring to bare it! See them Here.

Gabi looks gorgeous in her bikini and is a great example to other women of size to not shy away from showing a little skin. She has inspired us to take a chance and jump into a bikini this summer. It's a frightening thought but if the ladies in this piece can do it, so can I!

Gabi's up beat attitude and confidence is inspiring. We hope to see more of her in the future. She is the perfect example of our Curvalicious attitude. Strong, confident and above all else, happy in her skin. We can all learn from this.

We here at Curvaceous K hope we give you the inspiration you need and the confidence you deserve like Gabi.

We encourage all women to take a chance and look for that swim suit that is just right for them and join us at the beach!

Big Brooklyn Style

Big Brooklyn Style seems to be a new hit. The wonderful thing about it is that it's about us curvy girls. It feels like it is a bit of fashion tips with a bit of real life thrown in.

I do feel that there is a bit too much selling of Lee Lee's Valise brand. We hope that this will go more to the side as the show goes on so we can see more about the women and their styles.

I would like to see more tips thrown in on the show. Plus-size women have so many different shapes and it is hard to dress when you don't understand your personal shape.

We look forward to more Big Brooklyn Style and hope the show blossoms.

Big Brooklyn Style

Tonight on TLC a new show, Big Brooklyn Style premiers. Ala What Not to Wear, this show features one of Stacy and Clinton's favorite shops for plus-size women Lee Lee's Valise.

Owners Lisa and Jim Dolan help plus-size women get out of their hum drum wardrobes and into flattering, fashion forward outfits and perhaps help help them embrace their inner Curvy Fashionista.

Check back here after the show for our comments. Enjoy.

K

Has Size Zero Met It's Match?

On several occasions we have tried to convey the differences of what mainstream fashion pushes as normal and what is reality for the rest of us. In this open letter to the Daily Beast, Tyra Banks praises Vogue's recent decision to ban models that appear to have an eating disorder from it's magazines.

Tyra Banks is considered by many to be one of the sexiest women in the world and to think that she would be considered "too fat" by today's standards of modeling at a size 4, her size at the height of her runway career, is unimaginable by most.

As she states in this Good Morning America interview that she received a list of designers that no longer wished to work with her because of her size. View the interview below.

The industry has set the size of samples at 0-2 and in most cases no larger than 4. The average women in America is 14 and larger. An enormous gap to say the least. It is true that the fashion world is a bit like Hollywood in that it creates a fantasy world. The problem with that is movies are truly fantasy. Using camera tricks, special effects and 'Hollywood magic', they create a fantasy. Whereas fashion is real. The girls on the runway are real. The clothes are real and the problems backstage are real. And the only real trick is how the girls stay standing on little to no food in them.

It is wonderful to see that those in the industry are beginning to see the dangers of size 0 and taking action. Let us hope that more and more will do the same.

Positive Body Image

Body image is a hot topic these days. With so much attention being paid to modeling, plus-size modeling in particular , it is hard to avoid the subject.

The plus-size community has for years attempted to nurture positive body image in women by bringing attention to the realities of the mainstream fashion world. With young women starving themselves or worse to meet an unrealistic body ideal so cherished by 21st century fashion gurus. Bloating media with 'photo shopped' images of  unrealistic and unattainable figures. They have cultivated a consumer base that has an unhealthy idea of body image and is perpetually unhappy with theirs.

These images and ideas are aimed at women everyday but the real victims of all this unhealthy imagery is our daughters.

Young girls are inundated as much as adults in this onslaught and are the most vulnerable and influenced consumers of fashion. With magazines like Girls Life, Teen Vogue and Seventeen, our young women are targeted directly.

One young lady has decided to help change the images we see. Julia Bluhm from Waterville Maine began a petition to ask Seventeen Magazine to change the way it portrays young women and girls on it's pages.

The petition on Change.org, which has grown to over 46,000 as of today May 5th at 6:30 pm eastern, urges the magazine to have one unaltered photo spread in each issue so girls like her can identify more closely with the images they see.

Airbrushing, photo shopping or digital editing of photos has been practice that magazines have adopted to create the 'best image' to help sell a product. But this practice can go to far. In images such as this Self magazine cover of Kelly Clarkson she is clearly much thinner in appearance than she truly is.

Julia Bluhm took her several thousand signatures to Seventeen's offices in Hurst Tower and met with editor Ann Shoket who accepted the petition on behalf of her magazine.

In this statement to Jezebel they applaud Julia for her passion on the subject but do not say that they will make any changes to the content on their pages.

"We're proud of Julia for being so passionate about an issue - it's exactly the kind of attitude we encourage in our readers - so we invited her to our office to meet with editor in chief Ann Shoket this morning. They had a great discussion, and we believe that Julia left understanding that Seventeen celebrates girls for being their authentic selves, and that's how we present them. We feature real girls in our pages and there is no other magazine that highlights such a diversity of size, shape skin tone and ethnicity."

Although Julia's petition may not change a magazine, it does go a long way to help educate the public on what images we consume and that our youth are taking notice.

Hopefully more women, young and old alike, begin to take a stand like Julia and help promote a more health view of our bodies and self worth.