An Irish model has hit out after she was belittled and insulted by a stranger because of her size whilst on a night out with friends.
Katie Higgins from Cork describes herself as a plus-sized model and has worked on fashion shoots in both Ireland and Australia.
She was out celebrating her 26th birthday in Liverpool recently when an unprovoked verbal attack came from the man sitting in the next booth.
Although at the time, Katie was hurt and upset, she has since regained her courage and hit back at the man for his unnecessary comments.
She described the incident on her Facebook page Katie’s Curvy Closet, and encouraged other women not to let their confidence be knocked. Here is her post in full.
So this afternoon I met up with a friend and housemate I had in Australia along with my two best friends we had Dinner…
Posted by Katie's Curvy Closet on Sunday, January 24, 2016
The online support was so overwhelming that Katie was invited on to Neil Prenderville’s Red FM radio programme to discuss the issue of ‘fat-shaming’.
She explained that although she has a great network of friends and family around her and is confident and content in herself, the comments still affected her. She wanted to highlight the issue of ‘fat-shaming’ and let others know that they are not alone.
She agreed that she does not look like the stereotypical ‘size zero’ model, but that at size 14-18 she represents a large number women out there.
Katie reiterated that no-one deserves to be shown disrespect and wants to show that larger women can be glamourous and should feel proud of their appearance.
She told the host that although she is a larger woman, she is not a couch potato and is regularly active and enjoys going out. She added: “My outlook is that I’ve got to make the most of what God gave me.”
You can listen to Katie’s interview in full by visiting www.redfm.ie.
