The Ultimate #ThrowbackThursday - Famous Plus Size Fashion Bloggers' First Ever Posts

We've all got our favourite bloggers, and some of them have gained significant notoriety in both the plus size and mainstream fashion industry. My own personal style has really evolved over the past two and a half years since I started blogging (I've had some terribly cringe-worthy moments, and some great ones) so I thought it would be interesting to revisit some of my favourite bloggers' first posts. While I was reading, I realized these pictures would make for an amazing #throwbackthursday post, and I got right down to work.

Gabi Gregg of Gabifresh

Marie Denee of The Curvy Fashionista

Nadia Aboulhosn

Stephanie Zwicky of Le Blog de Big Beauty

Allison Teng of Curvy Girl Chic

Jay Miranda of Fatshionable

Tanesha Awasthi of Girl with Curves

Ragini Nag Rao of Curious Fancy

Jessica Kane of Life and Style of Jessica Kane

Lilli Pascuzzi of Frocks and Frou Frou

Rebecca Agosta from The Plus Side of Me

Nicolette Mason

And of course, me!

The difference between the then and now is remarkable - but what makes it so? Is it the use of better cameras (or more-experienced photographers)? Perhaps it's the elevated sense of personal style that the bloggers are exuding? That's certainly a part of it. But no, that's not it. Then what is it?

They have started a revolution. They have come out as proudly fat in a society where the very concept of body positivity is completely foreign to most people, and body shaming runs rampant and (mostly) unchecked. They are visionaries who are leading the way towards a world in which our bodies are our own - a world in which the choices that we make about our body, from what we put in it, to what we put on it, from who we share it with, to who we don't, are our own - where our bodies are no longer up for others' commentary or discussion; where they just are, existing in a world where value is not placed on our physical instantiations - and bodily adjectives are no longer qualified with value (fat/short ≠ bad, skinny/tall ≠ good). Utopia!

The act of dressing well as a fat woman is a politically radical act. These women have made themselves visible in the most beautiful ways, and demanded that they not be overlooked. They have shifted the politics of representation of fat people by using the democratizing force of social media to include their own true and real representation as a part of the dialogue. They have subverted the staid and stale tropes that exist that say that fat women are lazy and/or ill-disciplined slobs who are ashamed of their bodies. They have proclaimed loudly that they are beautiful, strong, fashionable, and unwilling to be ignored by society and the fashion industry.

It's this act of revolution that they are wearing well. And that is the difference between the "Then" and "Now" pictures. They have come into their own as women railing against a largely thin-focused industry and world. They're fighting back. And it's never looked better on them.