After spending more than a year in quarantine keeping myself entertained through social media and specifically on TikTok, I noticed a rise in a type of fashion content creator I had never really seen before. As someone who lives for fashion and styling, my FYP is constantly filled with “Get Ready With Me” and “Outfits of the Week” videos. However, the more that these videos popped up, the more I noticed a pattern in the description of the videos. I noticed hashtags like #MidsizeInfluencer or #MidsizeFashion, two phrases I never really noticed before.
Any fashion lover knows that clothing stores and brands are categorized by their respective target sizes, standard sizing includes sizes 00-12, while plus-size includes sizes 14 and above. Both of these categories include a large range of sizes. However, it seems as if the models and influencers that wear and promote the brands either have petite frames or voluptuous and curvy frames. While both of these body types deserve to be celebrated and represented, a very large portion of sizes and body types are left out, and over the last year, many creators on social media are working to highlight and show the way they style certain brands of clothes.
Among some of the midsize creators whose followings have grown tremendously over the last year is Madison Beltran (@madisonbeltran on TikTok).
“I remember always wanting to build a platform ever since I was in middle school because I knew I was different in some sort of way and I never saw myself in a person on the internet,” said Beltran. “When I found TikTok over quarantine, I figured why not give it a shot. In the beginning, I was just playing around, but then, I decided to take it seriously and engage with people and post what I really enjoyed doing, fashion and body positivity, because there really was none on the platform within my size range.”
With a TikTok following of 153K, Madison is one of the most popular midsize creators on the app.
“My experience growing on TikTok has been a roller coaster,” said Beltran. “Growing followers happens slowly or very quickly because sometimes, I will post content that goes viral, and it will attract a huge range of new people. In between that time period of the next viral TikTok I post, it will just be a steady pace of growth of followers through normal content that just doesn’t go viral.”
Beltran’s inspiration behind her content came from a lack of representation of midsize bodies in the fashion industry and on social media.
“I’ve always struggled, and still do, to find hauls, try-ons, fashion hacks, body positivity, etc. of people my size,” said Beltran. “It is very hard for people my size range to shop at places when they don’t know how it may fit on them considering almost everyone on the internet is typically size 4 or below or plus size.”
As the body positivity movement continues to grow and inspire people to find self-love and confidence, the rise of the midsize fashion creator will continue to grow as well, inspiring people who fall in between the petite and plus size range to see bodies that look like their own on display.
“I think being a midsize fashion creator has not only helped me become more confident but has helped so many other people and it has made me so happy with myself. Being able to help people who I have never met become so in love with themselves makes my heart burst with joy and I will forever be grateful for that no matter how many people I impact whether it be 10 people or 10 million people.”