Popular plus-size clothing company Torrid announced the winner of its Face of Torrid competition earlier this week: model Julia Miller. While many applauded her for winning the contest, a number of customers took issue with Torrid picking a model who doesn't represent the myriad body types that shop there — again.
Miller was selected from over 15,000 entries as the new face of Torrid.
She's 20 years old, a waitress, and from Texas. She also revealed she battled body shaming when she was younger.
“My weight wasn’t anything that I noticed about myself before,” she told People. “I was just a normal girl. I had this incident when I was in sixth grade where kids spit on me and threw food on me when I was on the bus, and that was really just a turning point in my life.”
Her confidence plummeted, and she became self-conscious.
“I used to stand in front of the mirror for hours and just tell myself that I’m beautiful,” she revealed. “Because I feel like once you love yourself it becomes easier. And I think that was a big thing for me.”
However, Torrid's customers aren't digging that the brand decided to go for a "slim" model.
Despite carrying up to a 4X, Torrid still continues to cast 1X models.
This is also far from the first time Torrid selected a slimmer model for the Face of Torrid competition.
Last year, the brand picked Maria Gimena as the winner of the Face of Torrid competition, only to get intense backlash for crowning a model who looked a lot like the prior year's winner.
This was the 2016 winner, BTW.
So, yeah, it's easy to see why Torrid customers are frustrated.
This isn't a critique of Miller's abilities as a model — rather, this is a commentary on the fact that despite catering to a plus-size customer base, Torrid still continues to feature and promote only one type of plus-size body.
Additionally, it would be beautiful to see a model with a visible belly outline, flab, and a non-hourglass body.
Where are the apple shapes, Torrid? The pear shapes? The non-hourglass types? Those people are ALSO buying your clothes, Torrid, and they can use a little bit of representation.
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