Introduced to Glamour Magazine by her older cousin when she was 11, Stephanie always had a love for fashion. The freedom of expression, colors, and textures excited her. The runway during Fashion Week was one of her favorite moments. And as much as she loved fashion, Stephanie did not feel like there was a place for her in it.
Stephanie grew up in a traditional West African family, in which her parents were adamant in her doing something corporate related. For that reason, she studied law and hated it. In her final year of university, Stephanie started a blog. The blog was first about skincare and makeup, in which she spoke about the lack of inclusion for deeper skin tones. Later, Stephanie wrote about fashion. “It almost feels like you exist at the worst of all worlds,” Stephanie describes how it felt to exist as a larger plus size dark-skinned Black woman. Each of those demographics are at the bottom of society, and living each day at those intersections can be emotionally heavy.
From a young age, Stephanie’s body was not accepted. Her father tried to control how much she ate, and her mother had enrolled her into a Weight Watchers program. She crash dieted and undertook very dangerous methods in order to lose weight. Stephanie had an eating disorder, but because she was fat, people saw it as a good thing. They were overjoyed with her losing weight and becoming “healthy” that they had ignored that she was far from such. Stephanie was obsessed and saw herself as a “disgusting creature that needed to slim down.” And even though she did lose weight, her mental and physical health were in poor shape. It was not until later that Stephanie realized all the terrible things that she had done to herself. She told herself, “I need to apologize to my body instead of apologizing for my body.”
Although petrified of showing anything lower than her chest, Stephanie decided to learn to love herself. She wanted to live loudly and unapologetically. In 2014, Asos Curve launched. Setting up her tripod and camera remote in her backyard garden, Stephanie posted her first full-length picture. The positive feedback poured in. She never anticipated receiving so much love and adoration for a body like hers.
Stephanie found herself accidentally falling into becoming an influencer during her body positivity journey. As the body positivity movement also grew, she found herself ousted. “I don’t feel like I have a place in that movement anymore like a lot of larger plus size women.” As much as she liked and respected models like Iskra Lawrence and Ashley Graham, companies like Torrid, Lane Bryant, and Dove predominantly centered white women. And if Black women were included, they were light skinned. The movement felt as though there was a “right” kind of body positivity and a weight limit. Only those considered “sexy” fat were included. From that point forward, Stephanie had to carve a new space. She would then call herself a body image or fat acceptance activist.
“Some of us like to wear bralettes and crotchless panties and tailored structured pieces of clothing,” Stephanie continued. Since starting her blog in 2008, Stephanie had always commented on fashion brands’ diversity and inclusivity. ASOS Curve was one of the first brands to take into consideration that fat women wanted to look nice. By extending the sizes of everything they already had, ASOS Curve depicted that showing up for plus size women did not require making a whole new “safer” line. Other brands like Navabi centered inclusion in their campaigns, brand stories, and models. They would fight the fatphobic trolls in the comments section of their marketing posts. A plus size woman even sits on their team. Some even took the matter into their own hands. Plus Equals, run by one woman named Jasmine, tailors amazing plus size clothing that are sustainable and vibrant. And although once upon a time, you could visit High St. in the United Kingdom and find plus size clothing, many brands had removed plus sizes in their stores and moved them to online only.
“We deserve a space at the table.” Although she dealt with imposter syndrome for being a journalist of her raw thoughts, Stephanie chose to publish a book, Fattily Ever After. This book would serve as a tangible love letter filled with the stories and experiences of plus size Black womxn. Some are traumatic. Some are funny. Most importantly, the book is meant for the reader to feel less alone. “I wanted people to be seen, heard, and understood...not feel alone in these feelings but energized, motivated, and beautiful.”
Stephanie Yeboah is a plus-size style content creator, author, body image activist, public speaker, and freelance journalist. She also loves playing Animal Crossing on her Nintendo Switch until she falls asleep. Fattily Ever After releases on September 1, 2020. For more information, visit stephanieyeboah.com . You can also follow her on Instagram and Twitter @stephanieyeboah