Second Post - Iskra Lawrence

Hello readers! As promised I will write a profile and a bit about a larger bodied influencer in each blog post. This blog post will be dedicated to Iskra Lawrence who is a model. Iskra Arrabella Lawrence was born on the 11^th of September 1990 (age 26) in Wolverhampton which is the West Midlands, England. She has been a model since 2008 and is still modelling. She is 5 ft 9 inches and is 192lbs. She is currently signed to the model agency JAG Models (Headquarters in New York). As well as being a model she has any other achievements. She is a contributor to Self magazine – a magazine dedicated to women’s health and wellbeing – and also was the founding managing editor at Runway Riot which is an online platform for all body types to learn about beauty. Iskra Lawrence is a brand ambassador for National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) and has created an award for the association – the NEDA Inspires Award.

Her modelling career at this moment is thriving and has many fans and supporters. One of the reasons for her popularity is that she does not allow any of her Instagram photos and modelling pictures to be photoshopped, retouched or enhanced. Many women support her decision and look up to her as a role model. She regularly calls out on the “body shamers” that criticise her photos and has taken to Instagram to do this. She is currently a model and a “global role model” for Aerie which is a lingerie line from American Eagle Outfitters. In the past, she has also modelled for another lingerie line called Adore Me. After starting her modelling career in 2008 – last year was the first time she took to the catwalk at New York Fashion Week for the designer Chromat.

Iskra Lawrence has a very large social media following. She has 3.2 million followers and usually receives 50,000 – 150,000 likes on her Instagram posts. She uses her Instagram account to help other women feel confident about her bodies and has lately been involved in the #boycottthebefore campaign. This campaign was created to allow those suffering/ recovering from an eating disorder to express that they are more than their before photo and sufferers shouldn’t feel pressured to post updates on their bodies. Iskra Lawrence uses social media effectively and tends to communicate with her followers – especially if they comment on her posts. She shares the details of her meet and greets and encourages her fans to join her. Her genuine personality, positive attitude towards her body and encourages other people to feel comfortable in their skin and confidence makes her a great role model for women. No wonder she was chosen as one of BBC’s 100 women.

My next blog post will be on model and ASOS insider blogger Lotte Louise Williams. In the meantime, have a great week.

Katie

First Post - an understanding

An investigation into the extent that the media promotes larger body types

Before I dive straight into the blog posts I thought I would introduce myself and let my readers know a bit about myself.

 So here we go; hello, my name is Katie and I am an Advertising and Public Relations student at North East Scotland College which is situated in Aberdeen, Scotland. I am now in my second year (and final year) of college and I am excited to be progressing onto university. This course is a “2 and 2” which allows students to continue their education after college and be accepted into a local University – Robert Gordon’s University. I will be attending RGU this September (2017) and I am thoroughly looking forward to transitioning from college as be closer to achieving my goals of obtaining a degree in Public Relations. 

As part of the course this course students were asked to create a blog that links in with different aspects of our course. I have decided to link my blog with the topic “Industrial Investigation”. The area I want to address in my Industrial investigation is how different media types are promoting larger body types and to what extent that this is true. I chose this topic as I am aware that social media accounts and other media types are promoting larger body types and praising them. This allows readers to be comfortable in their own skin. I also chose this topic as it is something I find interesting and am willing to spend time investigating.

Being asked to create a blog for college was quite exciting as it is very different to our usual tasks and learning outcomes that students are required to do. I have a blog of my own that I started out with college so will be great to gain more experience in writing.

I decided to dedicate each blog post to a “plus size” influencer/model/blogger and so forth. I will look at each influencers’ following, content, comments/reaction etc. This will help me and the readers to gain an understanding of to what extent that media promotes larger bodied people.

My next blog post will look at plus size model Iskra lawerence who has a large social media following and actively campaigns and supports others to help them feel comfortable in their own skin. I will also be looking into the social media account of Lotte Louise Williams who as well as being a model is a member of the ASOS insiders team and promotes clothing from ASOS that are flattering to her body shape. I will be also looking at Tess Holliday who is a plus size model in the Unites States of America and identifies as a feminist. Another profile I will be looking at is Ashley Graham who is arguably one of the biggest plus size model at this moment. As well as being a model, she is a designer, a judge on America’s next top model and a Body Activist. She has appeared in high profile magazines such as Vogue and Swimsuit Illustrated. These few examples demonstrates that media -especially social media – is used to promote large bodies due to the number of followers these influencers have.