A European model has sparked outrage after revealing she wears a “fat suit” so that she can appear in plus-sized ads.
The woman — identified by The Daily Dot as Karoline Bjørnelykke — took to TikTok late last month saying she was going to expose “a secret from the modeling industry.”
At the beginning of the clip — which has been viewed more than 300,000 times — Bjørnelykke shares a mirror selfie showing off her slender physique.
However, she goes on to state that she is often hired to appear in ads for sizes XL through 5XL.
“If you have eyes, you can see I’m not that size,” the redhead tells her viewers. “So how do we fix this problem? Well, basically I have to bring to work something called padding, which is basically a fat suit in separate pieces.”
The model then reveals the padding, before stuffing it under her shirt to show how she transforms into a “plus-size model.”
Bjørnelykke explains that casting agents actually prefer to hire thinner women as opposed to actual plus-size models because “they still want the neck and the face to look really slim and sharp.”
“This doesn’t just create unrealistic standards, but impossible ones!” the model declared.
Bjørnelykke ended her clip by imploring agents to actually hire larger women for their commercials.
“There are so many beautiful plus-size women out there,” she stated.
She added that she will no longer take jobs that require her to wear the fat suit, as she hopes that the jobs will go to those who are actually larger in size.
Viewers were left outraged by Bjørnelykke’s revelation, which she claims is standard practice across the industry.
“Oh, the jawlines make sense now,” one person remarked.
“I just realized how many times I have fallen for this by being ashamed of my double chin,” another wrote.
“This is why I’m so self-conscious about my face shape,” a third person chimed in.
Back in 2019, The Post spoke with several plus-size models who exposed problems with the industry.
“They want you to have small arms, a beautiful jawline, a slim waist, but you can have all the boobs, a-s and thighs you want,” one 22-year-old model stated.
Others complained that they were encouraged to be “curvy,” but were simultaneously forbidden from having cellulite.
“The standards for beauty are just as rigorous for plus-size models,” one woman told The Post. “There’s times where I’m like, ‘Should I lose or gain weight?’ I always wonder what the industry is wanting next. I don’t know what’s going to be the trendiest size.”
