In the beginning I used to say, 'I'm healthy, my cholesterol's fine, I don't have high blood pressure, I don't have diabetes.' By telling people that you see a doctor, and telling people that you're healthy, it's perpetuating the abuse against bigger bodies and the mindset that we owe it to people to be healthy.

Tess Holliday

Pet Health You

If I have the opportunity, a massage or facial is a great way to take a little 'me time.'

Tess Holliday

Time Great Age

I'd like to be the person who changes things, or at least open doors for others.

Tess Holliday

Change Who Things

In the beginning I used to say, 'I'm healthy, my cholesterol's fine, I don't have high blood pressure, I don't have diabetes.' By telling people that you see a doctor, and telling people that you're healthy, it's perpetuating the abuse against bigger bodies and the mindset that we owe it to people to be healthy.

Tess Holliday

Pet Health You

Being fat doesn't necessarily make me feel stronger. What makes me feel strong is knowing that I can live my life and be who I want to be.

Tess Holliday

Life Wing Win

If you want to eat pizza, have the pizza. If you want to run 5 miles up a hill, cool, go run. Do whatever you want to do, but don't let the size of your body and other people's opinions about you stop you from living the life you deserve.

Tess Holliday

Life Cool Your Body

Why is it controversial that I chose to talk about my abortion? And the fact that I got an abortion when I was in a marriage and could have financially supported a child, why did I feel so much shame for that?

Tess Holliday

Marriage Age Why

I think in the past, I was motivated by seeing what I could do with my own career as far as success. I was definitely motivated by my followers and family, which hasn't changed.

Tess Holliday

Success Family Change

I just say throw on your bathing suit or the shortest shorts you own regardless of your size and rock it.

Tess Holliday

Your You Us

Obviously there aren't many opportunities for someone who looks like me to walk in fashion shows. It's incredibly frustrating.

Tess Holliday

Who Walk Us

You can start with daily affirmations of love to yourself, like, 'I am worthy,' 'I am beautiful,' and 'I am loved.'

Tess Holliday

Love Art Yourself

I represent women that you don't see a lot in media and in print.

Tess Holliday

Women Men You

I was raised to believe that sex was shameful, that you should only have sex when you're married. I'm so glad that I didn't listen to that advice.

Tess Holliday

You Vice Ten

I've seen a lot of Black content creators calling for white folks to stop using the voices of Black folks to make TikToks because it's like digital blackface. That's valid.

Tess Holliday

White Voices Voice

Miss Piggy's a big girl, and glamorous, and people think it's silly when I say she's a role model to me, but she was.

Tess Holliday

Us Think Thin

I love taking baths with Lush bath bombs, or just sitting in a dark room and watching Netflix to turn my brain off.

Tess Holliday

Love Wit Watching

Casting plus size girls needs to be genuine.

Tess Holliday

Us Tin T

Just because we're plus size, doesn't mean we have to prove that we're healthy, just as someone who is smaller than us or average size doesn't have to prove they are healthy.

Tess Holliday

Health Age Who

Why is it controversial to talk about the fact that fat people deserve to take up space and deserve to be sexy?

Tess Holliday

Space Why Up

Loving yourself is a journey, not a destination.

Tess Holliday

Yourself Yours Your

None of us have it all together; it just seems that way on Instagram.

Tess Holliday

Way Us Together

Learning to love yourself is not going to happen overnight - the first step is trying to be kinder and more patient with yourself, and I understand that it takes time.

Tess Holliday

I would really love to work with major photographers who haven't featured plus-size models before.

Tess Holliday

I've been fortunate enough to pick the brands that I collaborate with based on if they feel authentic to me and if it's on-brand with what I am doing.

Tess Holliday

Love is, to me, a lot of different things. It's the love you have for yourself and if you have a family and friends. Your love for pizza. I feel like love can be really anything that you want it to be.

Tess Holliday

I would love to be in the pages of Vogue.

Tess Holliday

I think people think how I got work came easy. People assume that I was an overnight sensation, because they're just now hearing about me, or that everything happened very quickly.

Tess Holliday

I'll wear a crop top if I'm not loving my stomach because it kind of forces me to pay attention to it and to love it, really.

Tess Holliday

For so long advertising hasn't been inclusive when it comes to plus sizes which is crazy to me.

Tess Holliday

When I describe myself as fat to people, whether it's a driver, anywhere around the world, or a friend, and I'm like, 'Oh, it's just because I'm fat,' people are like, 'Don't say that about yourself.'

Tess Holliday

It's hard enough to break into my industry when you're my height and my size but adding the tattoos on top of it, there's not many clients that will hire you if you have Miss Piggy tattooed on your arm.

Tess Holliday

I firmly believe that a big part of the obsession with women's thinness comes from the same place as male power fantasies.

Tess Holliday

I am technically healthy but my body is no more valid than someone's who isn't.

Tess Holliday

What shaped my perception about my body and myself was finding better clothes - that's what changed my world.

Tess Holliday

I feel sexy when I can be in charge of how I present my body and how I am in this world.

Tess Holliday

Millions of followers doesn't equal millions of dollars.

Tess Holliday

Being able to love who I was, while also understanding that I deserved to be treated with kindness, helped me create a more positive and happy environment for myself.

Tess Holliday

Designers are either not interested in making larger sizes or they don't feel that it's important.

Tess Holliday

Self-love is for everyone and we all need it!

Tess Holliday

I'm not like recruiting people and starting a cult and telling people to be fat.

Tess Holliday

Plus-size is a term that's never been used in hate; no one has ever used it in a negative way. The industry has always used it to help us identify where to shop.

Tess Holliday

I was bullied from fifth grade on. They started making fun of me because my mom was in a wheelchair, then they started making fun of me because I was poor and then it evolved to my size.

Tess Holliday

I've been asked a lot lately if I had a hard time getting pregnant. I've been asked how I conceived. In the same way everyone else does!

Tess Holliday

I have to wear Eloquii to red carpet events where my friends are wearing custom Versace.

Tess Holliday

We need to support our LGBT youth.

Tess Holliday

I've been called fat my whole life. I am fat, so it's kind of silly to get mad about it.

Tess Holliday

I do admit that black men love me. I always forget that, and then I come to a black neighborhood and I remember.

Tess Holliday

When you become an adult and you have a choice of who to have in your life, if someone's hurting you and making you feel bad, then they shouldn't be in your life, even if it's a family member.

Tess Holliday

One thing I think constantly is if brands like Gucci can make plus-size menswear, then why can't we see it for women?

Tess Holliday

Why would I want to walk the runway for a brand to be their token plus-size girl when they're not even making my size?

Tess Holliday

I think it frustrates me that so many people have bought into the idea of what we should look like instead of actually giving a crap about everyone around you.

Tess Holliday