Though body-positivity is a fairly new movement, there are quite a few plus-size pioneers who lived fearlessly without mainstream "acceptance." One of them happens to be an animated, plump pinup girl named Hilda. And modern mom, artist, and body-activist Amy Pence-Brown is determined to make sure her legacy lives on.
Illustrator Duane Bryers, known as the "Norman Rockwell of pinup art," created Hilda sometime in the mid-1950s.
"I got the idea for a plumpy gal pinup and thought I'd like to make it into a calendar series," Bryers said in an interview with the Arizona Daily Star in 2012. "But how was I going to sell a plump girl?"
More from Revelist: 27 glorious illustrations of Hilda, the original plus-size pinup
He said Brown & Bigelow, the then-top calendar maker in the country, "reluctantly put it in the line and figured it would last a short time. It went on for 36 years."
So it is kind of easy to see why Pence-Brown is fixated on preserving her memory.
She wrote on Instagram: "Armed with my iPhone camera, some Dollar Tree supplies, a tripod, a lot of outtakes with a LOT OF ACCIDENTAL NIPPLE, and a sense of humor, I took on a silly and sweet summer photo project recreating this mid-century pinup beauty and some of her most iconic images."
In her posts, she gives little historical facts about Hilda and her creator.
But she really hopes women can just bask in the glory of seeing a woman with their body type (or something similar) portrayed in a positive light.
"Hilda shows us that at some time someone else found big girls' curves sensual, silliness sexy, softness endearing, confidence bold and bare skin beautiful," Pence-Brown writes on her website. "And that maybe, just maybe, we can find that in ourselves, too."
You can read more about Hilda and check out the rest of Pence-Brown's project here.
