Time and again, there have been stories of how different women have come up and transitioned the way people look at certain things and how they behave post that.
There have been examples set, role models brought to life and stories of guts and fearlessness that have changed the narrative and on a larger part changed the game. There have been many women like these in many circuits and industries and one of these industries that has had a lot of such stories is the fashion industry.
Timeless stories, recent stories and many such in between that have been inspirational. One such story is that of Denise Bidot. Born in Miami, Florida in 1986, Denise Bidot is easily among the most recognizable plus size models around right now.
Before modeling was even on her mind, Denise Bidot was all about breaking boundaries. As a child, she recalls having a rebellious spirit, not allowing anyone to stand in her way or tell her no.
As a teenager, she refused to succumb to pressures to lose weight, influenced by both industry professionals and some within her family.
Denise Bidot owes her modeling career to a woman named Misty, who doesn’t exist. In her early days as a model, Bidot realized that the way she presented herself in her day-to-day life was markedly different from the way she presented herself in photographs; in real life, Bidot didn’t always love her curvy body or feel desirable, but the woman she saw in photographs of herself looked like she’d never doubted her sex appeal for a minute.
So if she was going to make a career out of posing for a camera, she needed to invent an alter ego that she used so she could pretend to be the brave, sexy woman she saw in the photographs. She named that woman “Misty.”
Originally, she wanted to act and, in her late teens, she began auditioning for TV and film roles. That did not work out and in hindsight probably, it worked out for the best.
She started out with some lingerie assignments and photoshoots that got her famous in the eyes of many big industry names and renowned designers.
Bidot was raised by a Puerto Rican single mother who constantly struggled with her weight and body image. Watching her mother’s yo-yo dieting battle and how it was only making her increasingly unhappy and unsettled, Bidot realized early on that weight loss was not the key to happiness, nor was attempting to fit societal norms of beauty. But in that day and age, body positivity was never discussed, and so Bidot found it difficult to broach the topic with her mother.
Whether or not her mother saw how beautiful she was, Bidot did, and that experience was formative when she turned 15 and traveled out to Los Angeles to begin auditioning as an actor.
She was told, however, that her curves, boobs, and butt made her only castable as a more mature woman which at that time was a common over-sexualized judgment made towards women with curves.
And since she was still underage, they told her to come back to L.A. after she turned 18. When that day came, Bidot hit Hollywood again, ready to be booked and busy. But once more, they refused to look past her size which at the time was a size 8 or 10.
When auditioning for roles, she was told “you have too much body for that,” and was passed over. After not booking a single job, Bidot knew that Hollywood just wasn’t ready for her curves, and she was willing to wait.
Bidot turned to makeup, going through beauty school and then working as a freelance artist. While doing one curve model’s makeup, a photographer asked if she could shoot her.
She obliged, and those photos wound up getting the attention of different brands within the plus market. Though hesitant, Bidot took a leap of faith and had her first official photoshoot as a plus-size model.
That experience changed her life course dramatically. After the shoot, towards the end of 2006, Bidot was quickly rising as a plus-size model. Soon, however, she found out she was pregnant, and would eventually give birth to her daughter Joselyn in May of 2008.
Bidot had a decision to make: As a single mother, she could take a more conventional route and get a steadier, safer job, or she could take a risk and keep her daughter by her side as she showed her the ins and outs of the modeling world and body positivity moment. Bidot chose to do the latter.
And, that has literally changed the game for her. For the past thirteen odd years now, Bidot has shown Joselyn everything about her world from the fittings to the events to the photoshoots and even the unglamorous, challenging parts.
Because of this, Joselyn is less likely to believe what she sees on social media, knowing the reality may be much different, and that’s been a huge help in raising her to love any attribute society deems to be a “flaw.” On the flip side, however, Joselyn has shown Bidot that this next generation of trailblazers are much more equipped to change the world than she imagined.
A reason for Denise to be really proud of the work she has done, because when she along with a few other ladies decided to fight the typecast system, their eventual goal along with getting fame and recognition was to develop a sense of pride in the generations of women to follow about their bodies and be extremely positive about them.
“Love yourself to the max, because once you do that, you show your children how to do it. We have to allow them to have the tools to become solid humans,” she says. “You can just tell your kid, they’re powerful, and they’re beautiful, and they’re able and they’re worthy of: You have to show them. You have to give the example.” A simple message that ought to be passed on by parents from all fields and industries.
