News

Rihanna’s viral lingerie model for Savage X Fenty brand calls for fat people to be ‘celebrated’

‘I don’t fit a lot of checkboxes that naturally make me a person you would bet on,’ the plus-size model said

One of Rihanna’s brand ambassadors for her lingerie company Savage X Fenty opened up about her body acceptance journey after previously struggling with an eating disorder in an interview with Fox News Digital.

Maia N. Douglas is a New York-based plus-size model and currently a brand ambassador for Savage X Fenty, a lingerie brand with values of “fearlessness, confidence and inclusivity.” Douglas was also featured on a giant billboard in Times Square for Dove in September.

The model said that she jumped from property management to content creation on TikTok and Instagram during COVID. She currently has around 200K followers across platforms and her videos on body acceptance have reached millions. Modeling was always something she wanted to do, but she didn’t feel it was in the cards for her.

Maia Douglas is a brand ambassador for Rihanna’s lingerie brand.

“I don’t fit a lot of checkboxes that naturally make me a person you would bet on,” she said. “I had a lot of things stacked up against me. I’m plus-size. I’m an African American girl… And I had to really get over that fear of rejection and being told no and just accept the fact that… I will get a thousand noes. But if I keep saying yes, one day I’ll meet someone who’s going to say yes back. And then that’s how opportunities happen.”

Douglas said some castings left her in tears, and she felt they would suggest in a backhanded way that she needed to lose weight.

“I had someone say, ‘You’re way too big to be doing this. You’re just not the right look. No one will want to work with you.’ And I was just like, ‘Okay, I appreciate you saying that. It hurts, but I don’t believe that. And I know there’s a space for me because there’s a space for everyone.'”

Rihanna founded the lingerie company Savage X Fenty. (Getty Images)

On one occasion, as Douglas was being measured, she said the casting director told her, “I knew you’re busty, but I didn’t know you look like this. So I don’t really know what we can do with you… I don’t think anyone wants to work with you. You’re not that marketable.'”

Douglas said that she had sent in all her photos and measurements beforehand, and that they had pursued her for a year. “They knew everything. They had seen me for a year. Like I present very well online what I look like.”

It was probably one of the worst experiences I’ve ever had with an agency in my life,” she added.

Maia Douglas described leaving a modeling agency crying after a brutal rejection. It was probably one of the worst experiences I’ve ever had with an agency in my life,” she said.  (Maia Douglas )

Douglas said she has been “a bigger girl” since she was 11, and struggled with disordered eating patterns – including bulimia – until her college years. She attributed the eating disorder to some of the mainstream media’s presentation of what an ideal woman looked like.

“I developed an eating disorder very early… at age 11, which is kind of crazy to think about,” she said. “There’s no reason why an 11-year-old girl should ever be dealing with something so massive.”

Douglas went to therapy, got support from her friends and started reframing the internal voice that told her she wasn’t good enough.

“I talked to myself and just nurtured myself and tried to remove that shame,” she said.

Maia Douglas hopes to inspire young girls to accept who they are.  (Maia Douglas )

“Even though I’m in a fat body, it doesn’t mean that I can’t have those same internalized values because I was raised in an extremely fatphobic society. So it’s constantly unlearning and setting boundaries and respecting others’ boundaries,” she said. “One thing I could not imagine is another 11-year-old having an eating disorder because she hates her body. It just boggles my mind. So I would hope that I can continue to navigate my career in a way where it’s not only beneficial to me, but it’s also giving back and hopefully helping more young girls and women feel more comfortable with themselves.”

Now, Douglas has learned to accept herself as a person with a “fat body.”

“For me personally, fat is not a dirty word,” she said. In fact, Douglas now believes not only in fat acceptance but celebrating fat bodies as part of her “self-love” journey.

Maia Douglas explained how she has learned to accept herself as a person with a “fat body.”  (Maia Douglas )

“When it comes to, like, the term body acceptance … I don’t believe that that’s the goal… After you’re grieving something, you have acceptance… It’s like a tolerance…. But I feel like after accepting it, there should be a celebration. Like, you should be able to celebrate your body. So now I try to practice body celebration,” she said.

Douglas’ online presence has also courted criticism and hateful comments that she was “promoting obesity.”

To that, she responded, “The only thing about me that I guess would be considered promoting obesity is my body. But I’m vegan. I literally studied nutrition in college. I exercise at least 4 to 5 times a week. I talk about mental health and wellness and all of these things on my page.”

Maia Douglas snaps a photo in Times Square under a Dove billboard ad in which she was featured.  (Maia Douglas )

She said the issue is that the haters just don’t like “fat bodies.”

She said the critics were “not really concerned about obesity or about health at all… Health is never really [the] issue for people who just don’t like fat bodies. Because if you talked to my doctor today, and they said, ‘She’s good to go.’ It wouldn’t change anything for you. The entire issue is that, esthetically, I’m not what you like.”

As for how she deals with the mean comments, she said no one can speak to her more harshly than her own internal voice once did.

“There is nothing you can say to me that I have not said [to myself] that was probably worse than what you said. So, it doesn’t affect me.”

Maia Douglas is a brand ambassador at Rihanna’s lingerie brand. (Maia Douglas )

“I love myself a lot now… But the one thing I will say that I have a problem dealing with is the fact that people feel so comfortable being really, really hateful, like death threats, hateful in comments or in messages. And I feel like wishing that on anyone is really disgusting. I could never imagine just not liking someone because of the way that they look, to want them to not exist anymore.”

Savage X Fenty was contacted for comment and did not immediately respond.

Related Posts

Democrats spark outrage with desperate fundraising ploy after blowing millions on celebrity performances

Democratic National Committee workers are asking for charitable donations after  making significant layoffs in a dramatic downsizing after Vice President Kamala Harris lost the election. The pleas for donations sparked outrage on social media, as memories of the massive $1 billion Kamala Harris campaign spending spree were still fresh, including millions of dollars spent to host celebrity filled town halls for the vice president. Two-thirds of DNC staffers were laid off as part of the downsizing on Wednesday, with only one day’s notice and no severance, according to the union.

Top NATO chief urges leaders to get ready for ‘wartime scenario’ after Putin ‘threatens WWIII’ as Germany draws up list of bunkers that could be used as emergency shelters

A top NATO chief has urged business leaders to begin preparing for a ‘wartime scenario’ following rising tensions across the world. The warning comes as Germany announced it was drawing up a list of bunkers and other underground facilities that could provide shelter for civilians in the event of an attack. Speaking in Brussels yesterday, Dutch Admiral Rob Bauer warned that NATO members needed to adjust their production and distribution lines in order to be less vulnerable to blackmail from countries such as Russia and China.

Stars round on Ed Sheeran over Band Aid row: Spandau Ballet’s Tony Hadley tells the singer to ‘shut up’ as record producer Trevor Horn says he would have ‘gladly not used him’

Stars have turned on Ed Sheeran in the escalating row over the new Band Aid single – with Spandau Ballet’s Tony Hadley telling him to ‘shut up’. Trevor Horn, producer of a fresh 40th anniversary version of Do They Know It’s Christmas?, has also been critical of Sheeran after the singer spoke out against the new version of the charity track. Sheeran revealed last week he would have preferred his vocal contributions from a 2014 recording were not used on the new version.

Drunk student son writes off his millionaire dad’s £350k Aston Martin by flipping into a field on joyride

A millionaire’s £350,000 Aston Martin has been written off after his drunk university son flipped it whilst taking it for an illicit 4am spin. Will Gould, 20, lost control of the 211mph DBS V12 and overturned the supercar into a field when he barely got 800 yards from his £2.4million family farm. At the time his father Colin, a 50-year-old farmer, was away on business and had no idea about his son’s jaunt until he got home.

‘She will never breathe for herself, taste food or hug her son again’: Father reveals how his daughter is quadriplegic needing 24-hour care after teen smashed into her as he filmed himself driving with no hands

A single mother who worked as a fitness instructor has been left quadriplegic and needing round-the-clock care after a teenage driver ploughed into her while he filmed himself at the wheel. George Taylor made two calls, sent text messages and recorded five videos showing him driving a Volkswagen Golf at speed and overtaking other vehicles while using his knees on his steering wheel, when he crashed into Catherine Davies. Taylor, from Stretham, Cambridgeshire, had held his licence for less than 12 weeks when he used his mobile ‘throughout the journey’ to college on the A47 near Norwich in January last year.

Trump to take drastic action against Canada, Mexico and China to stop the border ‘invasion’ and issues an ultimatum

President-elect Donald Trump threatened Monday to slap a 25 percent tariff on Mexican and Canadian goods as long as the countries allowed immigrants to flow over the U.S. border. He also said he’d impose an additional 10 percent tariff on Chinese goods over the Chinese government’s refusal to make good on a promise to use the death penalty on drug dealers. These actions, Trump said, would take place on the first day of his administration.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *