By recreating the outfits of skinny girls for 12ish-size women, Katie Sturino has been spreading an empowering message of powerful body positivity. The social media sensation and entrepreneur started her famous Insta-page to cater to women “stuck in the middle” between plus and straight sizes. Many posts and outfits later, The 12ish Style is now an online destination that celebrates body positivity and contributes to an ever-growing movement for countless women of all sizes and shapes. Sturino also founded Megababe with the same intent – to create accessible products to solve a normal “problem” that has been ignored and stigmatised for too long.
With other digital influencers and body-positivity activists, Sturino is among those leading the change when it comes to asking fashion brands to expand their sizing options and to create stylish garments for every body shape. We ask Sturino about her projects, her aspirations and the ever-growing movement she’s helping to spread.
I was featured on the Man Repeller for a style story and realised how rare it was to see my shape on a fashion blog. I figured there were other women out there who needed dressing and style tips, so I started The 12ish Style to cater to women who were not really “straight size” but also not true plus – stuck in the middle! But I would say my site is now more of a place to celebrate body positivity for all sizes.
I worked as a fashion PR for years until I launched my dog Toast’s Instagram (@ToastMeetsWorld). I did that for several years trying to raise awareness for rescue and adoption until I started The 12ish Style and Megababe.
They immediately loved it – and I think that people still do. I even get excited to see how certain looks will turn out and how closely we can get them together.
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Oct 15, 2018 at 6:17pm PDT
I love seeing the representation. It’s so refreshing to see new faces and skin tones and sizes. I love that brands are getting into and so is traditional media – finally!
I think brands need to look at everything, starting with the way products are made all the way to marketing.
Absolutely!
I was tired of using men’s products to solve my thigh chafe, so I went to check out what else was on the market. Everything was either super-cheesy or made for men or athletes. Megababe is effective and the branding is meant to inspire women to feel unapologetic about a problem that the beauty industry has ignored for years.
Yes, thanks for getting that! Megababe is all about empowering women to stop being ashamed about normal problems and to erase the stigma around women’s bodies.
Online at Megababe.com – we hope to launch internationally soon, but we are small and have to grow slowly. All I want is for every woman in the world to have easy access to Megababe products.
As long as we are helping to make women feel good about themselves, I’ll be happy.
I would tell my teenage self to stop feeling bad about my body. My blog has really helped me accept myself – and I’m so happy that I can inspire women of all ages to do that now.
This feature originally appeared in the November/December 2018 print issue of #legend