Why I'll Never Stop Fighting for Size Inclusivity in Fashion

In the past decade, the fight for size inclusivity made really great strides in the fashion industry. I found my voice in that movement and it genuinely felt like things were shifting. But the reality is with the rise of skinnytok... we're taking a giant leap back. And that really saddens me.

I could get into all the reasons it's harmful to keep believing that you have full control over your body shape through restriction and movement or if you're living in a larger body you're unhealthy but I'm no expert. What I can do is share my own lived experience... in hopes that you might feel a little less alone.

Let me preface this by saying: never in my adult life has my mental health and physical health been at their best when I was trying to become and stay skinny.

Ironically... in the past few years... I have the least sedentary lifestyle I have ever had. I have the sanest relationship with food. I eat a healthy balanced diet while managing my celiac disease. I mostly sleep a minimum of eight hours a night. I drink plenty of water. I have barely a glass of wine every couple of weeks. I don't drink coffee. My stress levels are managed. I am a privileged white woman living a middle-class life. I live this way not because I'm following rigid rules just because it genuinely feels good. And by living this way... Surprise, surprise...my blood tests come back normal at every appointment.

But guess what.

I'm still fat. In fact... I'm in the largest body I have ever been in. So reread that last paragraph and tell me it's all just about what you eat and what you burn. If you're thin you're necessarily healthy.

Health looks different at every size... and skinny does not mean healthy. This is why I am so adamant that you can never judge a book by its cover. There is so much more going on in someone's body and mind than meets the eye... so please be a little gentler with those kinds of thoughts. Including the ones you direct at yourself.

The industry still has a long way to go

Aside from all the progress that still needs to be made on that front. The reality is the fashion industry contributes greatly in making things worse. It's offer is so far from where it needs to be and I'm floored at how many people still think that's okay.

I've heard every excuse in the book. We tried and it doesn't sell. It's too expensive to produce. I'm going to call that out. If you wanted to make it work... you would find a way. There are solutions: better marketing, the right models to work with, producing fewer standard sizes to fund extended sizing. You don't need to throw in the towel and do nothing.

If you're a fashion designer and your mother, your sister, your best friend, your grandmother couldn't fit into your clothes. Would you really turn them away and tell them to shop somewhere else? I still believe enough in the goodness of people to think that you wouldn't. And if you're choosing not to be inclusive... you're simply choosing ignorance. That choice, is starting to make me genuinely angry in 2026.

Eating, sleeping with a roof over your head and wearing clothes are all basic human needs. Being able to dress yourself for every activity in your day shouldn't be a big ask.

How many fitness brands promote movement and wellness while choosing not to clothe the people who they claim need to work out and eat healthy the most? Make it make sense.

My own story

I want to take you back for a moment because I think context matters here.

I went on a recent shopping spree that made me realize... again... that ever since I was a pre-teen I struggled to find clothes that fit me properly. I was a competitive skier with strong thighs. I wore a medium, sometimes a large... and I remember having to shop in the men's section for snowpants because women's sizing simply didn't go there. It made me feel so self-conscious and ashamed. Why was I ashamed of being a sporty teenager? I was completely convinced something was wrong with me.

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I grew up in the 90s and early 2000s. My mom, my sister, my aunts all lived in bigger bodies and would talk about themselves constantly with such harshness... then convince each other to try another Slim-Fast or Weight Watchers diet. I'd watch them struggle and start over again. I told myself I wasn't going to be like them. I wouldn’t get any bigger.

So I made my own version of "changes". I started skipping breakfast. Claiming I just didn't have time or wasn't hungry. Lunch became the smallest thing I could manage, a minute soup. Dinner was family dinner as usual... so no one would know. I told myself it wasn't dieting. I didn't care that I was struggling to concentrate in class or that my grades were slipping. I just cared that I wasn't getting any bigger. That fear lived with me every day.

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When I started living on my own, I made the tiniest meals possible. Just enough to say I wasn't restricting. After university, I went to culinary school. I was working impossible hours, always on my feet... testing and tasting... barely sleeping. My husband and I were starting to talk about marriage. My parents had both been diagnosed with diabetes. I looked in the mirror one day and hated what I saw, I didn't just have thick thighs anymore, I was fat and I decided right there: I had to be thin.

I started a very restrictive diet that somehow made me feel like I wasn't restricting. For two years I kept losing and I was finally thin in the way I thought I was supposed to be. But the thoughts and fears of going back always lingered. Then I got pregnant... and for the first time in my life... my brain went quiet. I knew I needed to trust my body. I knew it would do what it needed to do to bring a healthy baby into the world. And it did. I gained an 'appropriate' amount of weight. When I gave birth, I didn't have a lot of weight to loose. I was comfortable in my body.

That grace lasted about nine months postpartum. Up until someone said to me: "The only people I know who didn't lose the baby weight just aren't trying to." I hadn't been trying. Maybe I could loose the few pounds. The thoughts started spinning again. I felt so much shame that I paid a significant amount of money to have my metabolism analyzed convinced something must be wrong with me if I couldn't stay as thin as I was. The results came back: nothing was wrong. Which somehow made it worse. My willpower was the problem then. I hadn't just been scammed. That was not possible. Easier to blame my habits.

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One day, I found myself hiding from my husband while I ate two cookies after dinner, not the whole box, just two cookies. Then I met someone who told me, it was okay to eat those cookies... as long as I worked out to burn them off. So I started going to the gym. A place I despise to this day. Still no results. My body wasn't going back. Then I lost two more babies... and that constant voice came back louder than ever. I was a failure. I needed to be thin to bring another healthy baby into this world.

The optimal food pairings. The macros. The nutrients. I even became vegetarian for a while because everyone I knew who was vegetarian seemed thin. It would work for me too. It didn't, I never lost those few extra pounds.

I was 'miraculously' and finally granted the joy of carrying a pregnancy to term. I had my second child. I was so sick during most of that pregnancy that I actually lost weight... and I was relieved. My doctors were worried. I assured them I had a few extra to spare. Then my daughter was born... and something in me just clicked. Cliché right...

The turning point

I started to realise all the pain and agony I was carrying. I didn't want my daughter to feel that from me. Just like I'd felt from my own mother. I stopped thinking about my weight. And then one day... while scrolling and feeding my daughter... I stumbled upon a HAES dietitian and realized there was an entire world out there fighting for health conversations that didn't centre on size. I decided to work with her.

Over the next few years I worked hard to deconstruct what I had been carrying for so long and slowly healed my relationship with food and my body. I felt liberated. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't also angry. Discovering all the insidious ways diet culture had worked its way into my thinking... from the time I was a young teenager who just wanted snowpants that fit.

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The road to healing is long and winding. It's not always easy. When I was diagnosed with celiac disease, changing my diet brought on significant changes in my body... and it took time to recognize how much better I actually felt. More energy. No more constant aches. A body that lived more freely even if it was bigger.

Fast forward a few years, I am now in the largest body I have ever been in. I'm not going to shy away from saying that it is challenging at times... especially lately... when injuries have forced me to slow down and rest and sit with my own thoughts more than usual. I still catch thoughts tinged by diet culture creeping back in.

Writing all of this now, I realize how naïve and young I was when these ideas took root. And I still grieve a little for that girl who just wanted women's snowpants in her size. I really do believe so much harm would have been spared if she had found what she needed on that rack.

Why representation moves the needle

Here I was recently buying yet another pair of jeans. And I had to laugh a little.

Who else hated jeans their entire life until they realized they'd simply never been offered the right sizing?

Even as a teenager in a medium or large... I hated the way jeans felt on my body. What my body actually needed was an extended size and almost no brands carried that back then. Never did I imagine it would take twenty more years to fall in love with denim... and even less did I imagine it would happen once I started living in a plus-size body. Hats off to every brand out there actually making a difference in someones shopping experience.

Representation matters more than people realize. It moves the needle in ways that are quiet and deep and real. The bare minimum needed to move that needle is extended sizing. I don't think it's enough and I will always advocate for more. However, every brand that does offer extended sizing is getting us one step closer and I do hope they will keep extending their sizing further.

If you're a brand still offering neither, let this be your nudge to do better. It matters more than you know... To all the woman, children, teens out there thinking you're less than perfect, you we're never the problem.

If anything in this post resonated with you personally around your relationship with food or your body... you're not alone and you can get the help you need. You may not have a specific disorder, but you still deserve to live a life that is freer. of diet culture. Resources for eating disorders can still help you like they helped me. In Canada, you can reach the National Eating Disorder Information Centre (NEDIC) at 1-866-633-4220 or visit nedic.ca.Thanks for reading and cheers to a better world without skinnytok.