I can tell you what it’s not! It’s not a size 8! And you know what? I would KILL to be a size 12, so I don’t think that’s it either.

If you define plus size by sizes in shopping, most clothing lines for plus sizes start at a 14/16. I would say that there are women in a size 12 that could be considered plus size as well, depending on their body shape and type.

So WHY, if society already pre-determines plus sizes for us, does the fashion industry decide that anything smaller than a size 12/14 is plus size!? It’s not, and there are 2 major problems I see with this.

1. This is giving young women in this generation a size complex. When size 8 used to be healthy, now magazines like Cosmopolitan are considering it PLUS size. Instead of being happy in their skin and size, they are now thinking “OH NO, I’M A SIZE 8! I’M PLUS SIZE TOO?!” That’s when problems start happening. Bullying, eating disorders, self harm. It’s NOT OKAY for this to be happening.

2. The (growing) plus size community gets pissed off. Not only are there plenty of gorgeous, well-deserving plus sized models, but when we see these “plus size models” showing us the clothes we are supposed to be buying…it helps us in NO WAY decide if we should buy or not. These regular sized women don’t have a big gut, hips, big breasts, or a big butt to worry about squeezing into an outfit. I know if I see a size 8-12 woman wearing a 1X, it just makes me think I couldn’t wear even a size 4X in that outfit…and we all know how hard finding nice 3X clothing is…let alone dreaming that a company would stock a 4X!

I know this sounds ranty, but this is a popular topic right now after Cosmopolitan printed this saying a size 8 model was plus sized. It happens all too often. It’s sickening to me!

What do you consider plus size? Do you agree with me? I’d love to hear your opinion!