Hi! Hello! Welcome to Plus Size Inc.!

I had a thought last night about creating a plus-size media company. Think…early Jezebel with an exclusively plus-size perspective. Think Strategist but with curated picks for the non-straight-sized woman.

I dream that as this develops, we have interviews and stories from plus-size people living their best plus-size lives and talking about it as if it is normal and should be accounted for BECAUSE IT IS! (The average size of a woman in the US is 16-18!) I want to discuss bodies in sports and arts and others just living their best life and how they do it. I want to know the best products and services and things to buy if you move through the world in something deemed “plus-sized.”

So I did it, I made a media company. Well…I took the very first baby steps. This morning, I came on the interwebs and created a Gmail, Twitter, and bought a domain for this venture.

If this grows, if this idea has legs, I want to do so much more. I want us to have a place to talk about everything from work and life to outdoor recreation. I want us to speak with trailblazers and advocates. I want to discuss politics and laws and science that make life more complicated or how to address those issues so it can be easier. I want us to talk about navigating the world in an ordinary body that is treated as if it is an anomaly.

I hadn’t planned on writing so soon. But then I got an email from the surf brand Billabong telling me about the FIRST EVER women’s pipeline contest. And immediately got pissed.

The movie Blue Crush came out in 2002. Twenty years ago. And we’re just now getting an exclusive Pipeline tournament for women? It amazes me that we still haven’t gone as far as we should.

But that isn’t even what I’m mad about, at least not for this new endeavor. I was angry about the limited size options for women from one of the major surf brands in the industry. They have cool merch. That only goes up to size XL. The size chart on Billabong’s website says that is equivalent to a size 11.

So, babes, if you want to surf and are any larger than a US size 11, you aren’t doing it in Billabong gear.

And I have to admit, one of the reasons I have never surfed, despite growing up across the street from the Pacific Ocean, was that I never felt like there was a place for me. Surfing is already a male-dominated space. Most of the bodies that do it are long and lithe. If I saw anyone larger surfing, it was usually native Pacific Islanders in warm places. I didn’t see anyone like me squeezing in and out of a wetsuit, a requirement to take on the waters in Northern California. I was excluded before I even got started.

I probably could have done it anyway. But as I am sure anyone reading this has felt before, you don’t want to be the only fat girl in a space flailing. I wish I were braver and stronger and more trailblazing than that. But I’m not. I didn’t want to eat sand and snort saltwater by myself, as the only person who looked like me. It’s funny how much representation and seeing yourself matters. And far too often, in far too much of our media, even as we move towards “body positivity” and acceptance, I still don’t see people like me. (Let’s acknowledge that anything in quotes is a loaded term that people can take in several different ways. ) 

Or, if I do, it’s scattered throughout the internet, hither and yon.

I wanted one place to go. One website that could tell me about advocating for my health needs as a plus-sized female-presenting person. A single platform to discuss how to navigate the world and how to make that easier.

It is a place to talk about the worst chairs in restaurants and bring to restaurant designers’ attention that we’re going to start walking out of restaurants if we see them. (Not that we’re currently going to restaurants, but when we can!) A place to find the best chairs to sit at a table and eat a meal in. We shouldn’t have to crowd-source the answer on Twitter.

I want to save you from the dreaded scroll-through of a list promising plus-size selections, only to find one sad option buried at the end. It hasn’t really gotten better since being in the basement of Macy’s next to bedding, has it? It’s just virtual now. 

I’ll get the relevant information for you. A curated place for anyone (ANYONE) to easily access the information they need for a plus-size body, without doing the hours of research I find myself doing to find sports bras that fit and address my needs.

In the interest of starting on my mission, I took a look around at where I can find plus-size surf wear since Billabong seems uninterested in providing it to us. (And let’s be real clear that buying a men’s 2XL is not the solution when you’re a woman who wants things for herself, cut for a woman’s body, to feel your best in.)

Obviously, I’m not the first woman to notice or encounter this problem. Elizabeth Sneed seems to be a pioneer in this space, creating the Curvy Surfer Girl Instagram account. She worked with swimwear company Maaji to create the We All Belong In the Ocean line that goes up to 3XL, which is a good start. 124West has options up to size 4X. But we need more inclusivity in sizes and lines.

So here are the next steps: this is a passion project. I will send out a once-a-week newsletter on Saturdays that will be an aggregation of information related to things we, the “plus-size”, care about.

Please send me tips! Please interact with me! I want to grow this. I want it to be a place for us all. I want to know what you care about. I thrive off of (virtual) interaction! 

Also, I’m sure I’ll get things wrong. Please tell me that, too. I am open to feedback. Truly, genuinely. I want this to be as welcoming a community as possible. 

So welcome! Subscribe! Like! Email me! I’m so happy to be here, and I hope you are too.