Original subtitles

Downloaded from YTS.MX

[rousing music]

[crackling]

Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX

[click]

♪

- When I look in a mirror I see the stuff that I can...

I look at, like, all the things that are wrong with the way

I look, like, if I have excess skin or, um,

my acne or other things like that,

and I just kind of get mad at myself.

- Especially as a teenager, you're, like,

trying to find yourself

and develop self-identity and confidence and to walk around

and feel like you're alone and, like...

what you are and how you look is like, disgusting,

or like, shameful.

It's hard.

- I've heard people say, like, "Oh, she used to be so pretty,

like, what happened to her? Look at her now."

- It's like black and white, they label you fat or skinny,

and skinny's, like, the compliment, so...not good.

It's everywhere, the pressure.

♪

[school bell ringing]

- So, guys, I'd love to give you each a magazine

and ask you to choose an image from the magazine

that you think represents what society tells you

is beautiful today.

What do you think that we're being told is beautiful?

♪

All right, can you hold up the image in front of you

that you guys have all chosen?

I wonder if there's anything in those magazines

that actually you think is beautiful,

that looks like you or that you say,

"Oh, I see myself in that image."

Hold it up if you did.

If not...

- The fashion industry sets the beauty standards.

It has a very broad reach, it has a very deep reach.

It permeates so much of our daily lives,

it's actually hard to escape.

- How important is the fashion industry

to you and your friends?

- Extremely important.

- Everyone, at some point, has wanted to look like models

in a magazine because the way the magazines portray

the models, they're beautiful.

- Models in different campaigns for the clothing stores,

they had one very concrete image of beauty,

and that was what I was kind of trained to think about

when I thought about myself.

- I'm seeing, like, these magazines and it's just...

I don't look like them.

- The fashion industry and the media absolutely reinforces

the idealization of thinness and the concept of a "perfect" body.

- A typical fashion image is that triple-zero

who's seven feet tall.

It's an unattainable image.

- It's not like I'm looking at these pictures and saying,

these were what people look like,

'cause we don't really all look like that,

it's like, a very low percentage.

- People who look like me

are not really walking down a runway, which really sucks,

so, you know...

- I'm, I guess, bigger than what you would call average,

and just seeing all these ads everywhere,

I just go through daily life thinking,

why don't I, I guess, look like that?

And it's very, you know, it really does affect me

and I just wish there was some kind of difference, you know?

- I feel like it makes people second guess themselves

when they're about to post something or when they're just

looking in the mirror or when they're trying on clothes

in a store, it's like, am I supposed to look like the model

wearing the same shirt that I'm trying on right now?

And it's like, you don't, so it's like,

does that mean I'm fat, does that mean I'm ugly?

Because she's obviously beautiful.

- Not seeing somebody in a magazine that looks like you

makes you strive to look like them even more,

even if that involves hurting yourself.

- And just seeing, like, this small group of people

who are extremely skinny,

and being told that that's what you need to look like...

crushes, like, our self-esteems.

- I believe that this imagery is at the root of

one of the greatest public health crises

in the United States, certainly, but around the world generally.

- The brain processes images 60,000 times faster

than it does words,

and so if you want to change somebody's perception,

creating an image about it is the fastest,

most immediate way to do it.

- I'd almost rather ask the question, what,

what can the fashion industry do to make this better?

- Right now there's not, um, a lot of diversity,

and I think that that's the most important thing.

- What is wrong with having, you know,

a little more in your midsection,

and what is wrong with, you know, maybe having

thicker thighs?

- It's affecting girls, like, everywhere.

- Everyone's looking up to these fashion models

and if they see, like, how they have different bodies

and they cam feel comfortable with themselves, then I can too.

- We need a more diverse range of role models.

♪

[camera clicking]

- Hi.

[camera clicking]

- Good morning!

Hi, everyone.

♪

[camera clicking]

- Hi. [chuckles]

♪

[camera clicking]

- Good morning.

♪

- What we want to do is create the imagery

we should be seeing more of,

so that crosses the line of size, ethnicity and age.

And we'll curate those images into an exhibit.

♪

- Welcome. - Hello.

Nice to meet you. [camera clicking]

♪

- Hey.

[camera clicking]

- Come on, let's go in.

♪

[camera clicking]

- My decision as an image maker...

to not perpetuate the things that had inherently damaged me

as a young girl, dealing with being plus-size, so, um...

I have this desire to create this world where diversity

is just something that is natural

and not something that we talk about.

♪

[camera clicking]

- We have Iskra, she's that kind of mid-range size.

- Morning, guys. [camera clicking]

- We have Philomena,

who is on the larger end of the section size 14/16,

so these are more on our larger size,

these girls sit more in the middle,

and these girls are definitely

from our zero to four size range.

♪

- You are not accustomed to seeing this range of women

of varying ethnicities, body types, sizes, age,

portrayed through this lens.

But for me, I am fascinated by this cast of characters

and what they represent in the industry, in the world.

[applause]

This is a broad range of diverse and complex women

fully ready to change the conversation

for other young girls.

- As a model, I'm really responsible

for the way in which younger people see themselves.

- Helping these young girls to realize that

that perfected image, they don't have to attain to it,

they are good enough as them.

- It kind of made me stay in the industry

and say, this is important

that we reflect our bodies and imagery.

- For so long we've been told it doesn't work.

It doesn't work to be African, it doesn't work to be dark,

it doesn't work to have natural hair,

and be plus-size on top of that, it's like,

every "no" combined into one person here.

- I'm a mother as well, so for me it was so important

once my daughter was born to do something

that would change her and her friends and how they were going

to grow up and see the world, like,

she deserves to have women of all shapes, colors and sizes

and ages in these pages,

and I don't want her growing up thinking

that she doesn't deserve that.

♪

[background conversations]

- Welcome. - Hi!

How are you? - Good.

- We haven't seen an exhibit with this much diversity

from a fashion perspective,

so I think this will be the first time

we're seeing this type of range,

not just in body, but in ethnicity.

- I'm so happy to meet you.

- I love what you're wearing. - Oh, thanks.

♪

- For me, like, the point of this shoot is to create imagery

that where maybe we're used to seeing

but with a range of bodies.

So for me it's like fashion re-imagined.

- I worry about my little sister.

She's 15, she's in this place

where she just doesn't eat anything and she's like,

"Okay, I'm not eating," because she wants to be skinny.

- Mm-hmm. - She's sitting on Instagram,

following all these girls who are doing all these things

and trying to look like pictures that are not real.

And I'm like, "Okay, I model, I'm telling you,

that's not real."

I really think that we need to be a little bit more honest

about the conversation.

Because if I stand there and I say to her, like,

all these young girls, "I love myself completely.

I never have any self-image issues, I--"

that's not true, and it doesn't help anybody

because all their role models are lying about

what it means to truly, truly be body positive.

- Right.

- The percentage was 1.4% of models were over a 12

in campaigns last season.

1.4%. It doesn't represent women.

And it is--those high-end, you know, seeing someone like Phil,

seeing someone like Sabina, you know, on the runway.

When I saw Sabina on the runway,

I'm not even looking at her size.

I'm just thinking, God damn, that's a hot, sexy woman,

like, she's owning it, she's on the runway,

and it just made me so happy.

That's what-- that's the disconnect

I don't understand yet, that they haven't realized

that there are women that are stunning and beautiful

and they want to, you know, feel wonderful at their size,

it doesn't matter, they just want to wear fashion

and enjoy it like everybody else.

♪

When I was 13, I entered a search for supermodels,

and I got down to the finals,

and it was an amazing experience, like,

I got a taste of shooting, um, you know,

I signed with a huge agency, I was super excited,

I was going down and seeing myself in these rooms with

these other models who I looked up to and just kind of looked at

my body shape and looked at their body shape

and would think, oh, my goodness...

[chuckling]

And all they would do is measure my hips, measure my hips.

I did shoots, I did runways.

There was one runway I remember in particular,

and there was, like, 20 or 30 girls.

You're literally, like, naked, you're completely vulnerable,

you're 15 years old and you're getting into clothes.

And like, one after one, like, they were getting up to here

and I was like, oh, crap, I can't get these on.

And I was trying to hide it from the people in the fashion show

and the stylist saw and he was like,

"Why can't you fit into the clothes?

"Why are you so fat?

What are we going to do with this fat model?"

And it was in front of all... everyone else,

and it's completely humiliating,

you just want to be sucked into a hole.

You know, I tried all the diets,

I tried all those extreme things and I realized

I couldn't change my body, like,

it would never be perfect because perfect doesn't exist.

I just decided, right, I've got to do my own thing

and I've got to make this work at this size,

'cause I feel healthy, I've gotten to the place

where I feel happy with my body,

so surely that's where I'm most beautiful.

♪

- Um, let me get the 7200.

Nothing on you is precious, like, all about you.

Yes, gorgeous.

♪

Oh, my God, it's so pretty.

I think we got this look.

- Yeah, I think so.

- I feel like you just don't make as much of an impact

if you're black,

which is really sad. - It is really sad.

- I tweeted that yesterday. - It sucks that you feel that--

I'm not saying that you solely feel that way,

it sucks that, you know... that's your truth.

- I've run into other girls who have just been like,

"I could've had a cover but I was cut out

because I look this color or I could've done this."

It's like, we're in the picture, but it's like one, two, three.

I'm from Ghana, born and raised in London, but from Ghana.

I didn't actually realize I was black until I came to America.

Like, "Oh, my God, I'm not African-American."

No, actually, I'm not African-American,

I'm from the UK.

And they're like, "Oh, so what do you call yourself?"

And I just, I don't...

Then it becomes hard because what do I call myself?

Yes, I'm black, yes, I'm plus-size,

I'm also Ghanaian, I'm also British,

I'm also a myriad of other things, but that is not me.

At the end of the day I'm still Philomena,

I'm still my own person,

and you want to describe me a certain way, and that's okay,

and you want to describe me a certain way,

and that's also okay, it's our language,

it's the human language,

it's how we make sense of the world around us.

- Give me a little higher on this end.

- It is lonely being a black plus-size model

because there aren't that many of us.

I feel like there should be more,

there really, really should be more.

- Gorgeous... really strong.

Nailed it!

- It's not a normal story,

but for me modeling helps me with my confidence.

Because it's forced me to get to know myself.

With modeling you don't-- there's no filter.

You are photographed from whatever angle,

everywhere, so it's almost like, "I don't like my thighs,"

you're going to look at your thighs every single day,

it's going to be everywhere every single day,

you better get used to it and say, "Hi, thighs, welcome,

nice to meet you, I'm your friend now."

And then become very indifferent towards it.

- Gorgeous.

Perfect movement, literal perfection.

- I'm not a plus-size woman, I'm a plus-size model.

The problem is not the label, it's the mentality.

When I say plus-size to my friends in the straight industry

they're like, they almost come, like, for a funeral,

like, "Oh, my God, what happened to you?

But you still look good," and I'm like, "Yeah!"

My idea is to bring awareness to body image

and to everybody feel comfortable in their own skin,

no matter what.

There is nothing wrong with being skinny.

There's absolutely nothing wrong, it actually is beautiful

if you are like that, but if you're not like that also,

so that's the whole point.

- What do you think, as a straight-size woman, Erica?

- I've been through my own stuff.

And there's some stuff I don't like about myself too, equally,

you know, and so, finding that day that I loved myself

and accepted who I was, and that was a beautiful day.

[background conversations]

- Hi! - Hi!

- So I just wanted to go over with you the group shot

and what's going on here.

So I definitely want moments where you are interacting

with each other, but also feel empowered

to be having your own moments.

It should very much be about your personality,

that should really shine through here.

Erica, you're interacting with Philomena.

Nathalia, your body's interacting with them,

but you're only ever interacting with me or the--over there.

♪

Love this.

- When I was a size four I struggled a lot, and...

in my best modeling career would be like, a size two and zero.

It's so funny to remember this shot,

of doing all the effort in the world

to look skinny in the pictures.

I remember looking at this picture and thinking I was huge,

huge, I was so ashamed.

At the top of my career I got in my bottom of self-esteem.

And the clothes I got to this stereotype of beauty

and happiness and, like, success, it went further.

I was like, is this all a lie that I believe since I'm,

I don't know, 12 years old,

that to be happy I need to be skinny?

Oh, my God, I look at this picture of me when I was 15.

Oh, my God, that body, like, just the perfect, healthy body,

it was like this beautiful girl,

naturally that way, and I hated it.

I remember, like, looking at my legs and being like,

why are they not straight, like the models?

And it's so funny to remember myself at 20, 23 years old,

being on the cover of magazines, like,

it felt like a dream, like suddenly I'm like,

I'm doing all of that.

Suddenly I am that girl in the magazine.

And I'm not happy.

You think like my worth is in not eating,

and we can't allow girls to live like that anymore.

- At what age were you when you first went on a diet?

- Hmm...probably like 13.

- I think I might have started trying 12--I'm 16 now.

- I feel like I hated myself so much that I don't have--

like, I feel like a lot of my body is my least favorite.

- I did go through, like, a rough period where I was

weighing myself literally every time I ate a meal.

Oh, let me take my shoes off, let me, like, do this,

let me try to see the numbers drop down, and then

my scale actually ran out of batteries and my dad

refused to put them back in.

- The idea that thinness equals health

is a very dangerous notion.

The idea that thinness equals happiness, equals success,

will lead to a sense of fulfillment, will make you feel

better about yourself-- all of these concepts

are incredibly flawed and incredibly toxic.

- I got a message from someone from the industry

saying that I promote obesity.

So, uh, I guess I'm really angry right now.

So this person, seems like this person is concerned

about my health and...

and this is a person that actually influenced me a lot

when I was really skinny

in the fashion industry in my country.

I say that people should be-- take--should be concerned about

my health when I was really skinny and completely obsessed

and living a life that was first of all not fulfilling

and second of all, unhealthy, and would eventually kill me.

And people didn't seem very concerned,

people from the industry.

I didn't see one person concerned about me.

- This message that fat is bad, if that could be eliminated

from any messaging in our society, from all the media,

we'd be way ahead, and that would not be undermining

to public health.

- If there is an ideal person, um, or an ideal body part,

it would be somebody that would weigh more

than what's being promoted in the media.

So why don't we get "ideal" off the picture?

Why don't we say, what's to your benefit?

The question is, how do you feel?

How are you performing?

What does your blood work look like, you know?

Do you have plaque around your heart?

- There's nothing about seeing images of women

that are more realistic or what women really look like,

that is causing any epidemic.

It is not causing any health problem.

If anything, what it's showing is that women of,

of a range of sizes can be valued,

valued enough to be portrayed in our mass media.

- Let's try again.

I think it looks great.

- It feels cool. - I know,

it's made from feathers. Isn't that cool?

- All right, let's take some photos.

- Nicki, does it scare you hearing young girls

talk like this, when you have two 20-year-old daughters?

- Yeah, I purposely didn't have scales in the house.

I thought raising girls, I've got to be very careful.

And no one discussed weight.

- I mean, my mother put me on a diet since I can remember.

- Really? - Yeah.

She was always so afraid that I would turn out like her, like,

and she's not even like, overweight.

Also, there are doctors out there that I remember when

I was nine and I--I was a perfectly healthy girl, I was,

I always loved salad and everything,

and my parents are both really into health,

but then I'd go to the doctor and I was like,

two points BMI more than I should be,

which is like, it's too super-normal,

I was a curvy girl, always had, like,

a big butt and things like that.

But then he's like, "Oh, I think you should go on a diet

for a nine-year-old girl," and that's a doctor,

and that's when my mom starts to validate all, you know,

her thoughts, and she's like, "I don't want her to be obese

or anything like that."

- Health is not defined by a number on a scale.

It's certainly not defined by Body Mass Index.

- If there's anything that I could take back

from what my field of public health has done,

what medicine and nursing has done,

is the use of BMI so ubiquitously throughout society.

It really is a bludgeon.

- Health is very, very, very individual.

I have a Master's degree in International Health Management,

it's got policy, economics and...

all sorts of health metrics.

BMI is about population size and spread.

It's a statistical measure that you can't really use

on an individual basis.

- Body Mass Index is only a relative measurement

of how tall you are versus how much you weigh.

That does not actually describe how your body composition

is comprised of muscle, or fat, and it is not diagnostic

for the amount of body fatness or the health status

of an individual.

- There is a real danger in the over-emphasis on weight

and the number on the scale.

And I hear about that every day from parents

who cite very well-intentioned obesity prevention programs

as the start of their child's eating disorder.

The experience of being weighed at school,

the BMI report card getting sent home,

the chatter that happens among the kids about, you know,

comparing weight and numbers,

and how it leads to bullying and how it leads to an obsessive,

unhealthy focus on weight.

Kids are particularly vulnerable to these messages,

and we have to change our way of talking about health

and shift the focus away from the number on the scale.

- I won't ever forget Joselyn.

She came home recently, and was talking about her thighs

and I thought it was really interesting because

it's obviously a conversation that's being had at school.

- Come and join us.

[laughing]

- Well, Joselyn, do you hear anything from girls

at your school?

What have you heard people say about your thighs?

- Well, one of my friends said I'm fat.

- She said you are fat?

- You are not fat, young lady.

- And another girl.

- She said it to another girl too?

Well, that's not cool. What did you say?

- "That's not very nice."

- No.

- Why do you think she said that?

- Not cool.

- I'm like--ahh! - Come on.

You know, I try my hardest with Joselyn.

She's like my biggest inspiration.

I have the ability to show her something different,

and by helping her it'll help so many other people.

- Perfect!

Yes!

- When you're walking around and you're at castings

where everyone's so much thinner than you,

it does sometimes cross your mind, like,

"Shit, should I maybe be dieting again?" or something like that.

But I don't want to.

You know, when I was in Paris I was told to lose

an inch and a half or something in a week--

- What? - Yeah, and I was like,

how is that even possible?

Some of the girls are so fit and I know

that I was once that thin.

- How did you feel when you were that thin?

- Awful.

My skin was horrific, my mood was horrific,

I was tired all the time, it wasn't fun.

It's not like an existence, do you know what I mean?

No job is worth doing that,

you know, and I always think back to how miserable I was

and I--I'm not going to go back there again, you know?

- Yeah.

- Whenever I walk past scales,

like, for some reason there's something, a part of me,

or inside of me that's drawn to them.

I just want to get on scales and weigh myself and stuff,

and I found myself doing that when I went back to England,

my grandparents have got them in their bathroom,

and I was like, "I have to do it, I have to do it,"

and I was like, "No, I can't, I cannot do this."

So, yeah, I just stopped doing that now,

it's just so much better for my own sanity.

- Once more, Jenesee.

- By looking at a person's body,

it is very difficult to judge somebody's health

just from the outside,

not knowing what's going on internally.

Pounds on a scale do not matter as much as body composition,

because ultimately it is our insides

and what is metabolically active versus not

that ultimately determine how healthy we are.

- So, I'm off to King's College Hospital today

to get my body fat scanned under an MRI scanner.

I'm a bit nervous because whenever it comes to things

like bodies and fat and things like that,

it's always a bit of a weird subject for me, um,

but hopefully the scan will just show that

I am healthy and good, that's what I'm aiming for.

I know I've put on weight, and that's fine,

I just want to accept the fact

that I'm doing that rather than worrying about it.

- Fat has use in the body,

primarily, starting off as an energy storage

and for helping to regulate the metabolism.

Having a normal amount of fat around the hips, thighs

and buttocks is very stable and helps to absorb

some of the harmful byproducts of digestion,

and will help to provide additional energy

when you are battling an infection or some other disease.

So, having some fat is good.

[man on phone] - Hello, Brandon speaking.

- Hi, Brandon, it's Charli.

- Hey, Charli, how are you?

- Well, I'm ringing you to find out my results of my MRI scan.

So can you just quickly tell me what's the difference between,

um, visceral fat and subcutaneous fat?

- Yes, so the subcutaneous fat...

- Subcutaneous fat is the fat just beneath our skin

and throughout our entire body.

Visceral fat is within our abdominal cavity

and helps to cushion the vital organs.

When we're looking at a person, externally, we can see

the shape of the subcutaneous fat and rolls and pouches.

We cannot see the visceral fat because that is within

the muscle walls, the ribcage, the pelvis.

Subcutaneous fat is more healthy than visceral fat.

- In terms of health, visceral fat dominates

how healthy you are and you will be in the future,

so you can see you have relatively very little,

so you're in very good shape in terms of the visceral fat.

- Okay, well, that's really good to know, I'm really happy.

I was worried that I was like, I might be unhealthy underneath.

That makes me really happy.

[Brandon chuckling on phone]

Thank you very much. - All right.

- I'm really happy...yay.

- The real problem comes in with the stigma, with the,

with the shame that people are made to feel and the animosity

that people in our society feel toward people at the higher end.

- This culture definitely defines largeness

as failure, period.

- If I gained weight, I would feel uncomfortable because

as girls are watched really closely, and I feel like

our weight is something that is watched closely, and it's...

I don't know.

I think gaining weight would just make things harder

on myself and harder to be around other people

who are judging me and looking at me.

- And so if I do gain weight, like, I'm getting further

and further away from this idea of perfection,

so I do get mad at myself sometimes.

- There's so much pressure to lose weight and gaining weight,

it's just like... I don't know,

I feel like it's in some ways like social suicide.

- The unfortunate thing is when we see people who are large,

we do label them, it's really unfortunate,

and I think in the same way that we've had to pay attention

to our quiet racism and people who think that they're not

racist to really look at how you really are

thinking about people.

I think we have to do the same thing about size.

- I am the first visibly fat model.

There's probably better ways to put that, but it's true.

I know the reason that I became a model

was because I didn't see anyone else that looked like me.

I didn't see anyone in media that,

that looked glamorous that was fat, like,

that's why I have Miss Piggy tattooed on me because,

like, she was glamorous, sassy, and funny.

To me, like, that's what I identified with.

My physical body in no way keeps me from doing my job at all.

I am the primary breadwinner in my family.

My mom is partially paralyzed and I have a four-month-old,

and my job is so demanding, and it doesn't end when I get home.

The fact that people are so offended by the notion

that plus-size and fat women deserve a place in the world

and that we deserve happiness is a huge reason why things

haven't changed, and it's a huge reason why

the fashion industry isn't quite catching up.

We're told that we're not allowed to feel sexy

and that we aren't going to find people that love us

and that we can't wear certain things

unless we look a certain way.

When you have, you know, 98% of the world telling you

that you don't deserve those things because of how you look,

then some of that starts to stick.

- We need to stop blaming people and instead

change the structures around-- the food environment,

the physical activity environment--

and absolutely eliminate the discrimination and stigma

and treat people with respect and dignity.

- I've been plus size all of my life, you know,

and it's such a conflicting,

unhealthy relationship you develop with food.

You know, because, for me, when I was, like,

in middle school and high school,

if I was eating something healthy,

I thought everyone was, like, watching me, you know,

and I felt like they were like, "Oh, she's eating healthy

because she wants to lose weight."

- Yeah. - And then if I ate unhealthy,

I felt like, oh-- I felt like people were thinking,

"Oh, that's why she's fat," you know what I mean?

And it was always, you know, I could never find that balance,

and then I just became scared to eat in front of people.

And this is when I was 14.

I would go hide in the bathroom at lunch sometimes and eat

because I didn't want anyone to see me eat.

Or I would make it a point to never finish everything

that was on my plate because I was scared that everyone

was looking at me and judging me.

- A lot of people will say to me,

"Well, it's just easy to lose weight,"

and you think like, that's not-- like, I get that I am fat,

I get that, um, you know, I, to some people,

I could lose weight and I could be smaller.

People don't identify that, you know, um,

disordered eating in the sense of overeating

is an eating disorder.

When I was 10, the man that my mom was engaged to

shot her twice in the head and tried to kill her,

and she is now partially paralyzed from it.

The fact that I used emotional eating, I think of it

as the way that I survived,

and we all use different coping mechanisms to survive

and to get through things in our life.

And it's really frustrating because I feel like

if there was more awareness of disordered eating,

people actually talking about what that means,

then people could understand what they need to do

and maybe why they're doing it and, and get help with it.

- As far as we've come in this field, I still hear from people

who think that eating disorders are about vanity

or that the whole idea that, "Well, why don't you just eat?

"Or why don't you just control what you eat?

You know, you should have more willpower."

- I was scared that my whole life would collapse

because I was gaining weight.

I felt...I was hiding my craziness around food

from the entire world and at the same time selling an image

that was healthy.

- When did we stop looking at how healthy and happy we were

and when did we start looking at skinny at all costs?

Like, I can be skinny and that also can mean that I'm healthy.

It doesn't matter about how I got there

or what I did to get there, I just want to get there.

- Eating disorders are a serious public health issue.

They have the highest mortality rate

of any psychiatric diagnosis.

This is not a silly, passing fad.

It is not a vanity issue, it is a serious public health issue.

- I almost lost my life once, like, really, really close.

- What happened?

- I don't remember anything, I just remember waking up

in a hospital and my boyfriend's with me.

The doctor told me, like, most of the people would have died

with this low potassium, my potassium was so low that,

like, my heart was stopped,

and I stayed there for a week and went back.

But like, to have a doctor tell me, like,

"You're really lucky you're alive,"

I'm like, okay.

And I remember just leaving the hospital, saying to me,

"You can eat chocolate, you can eat chocolate--

just a little bit," like saying to me, like,

they kind of knew what was going on.

I wasn't even asking that in the picture at that time, and

I remember thinking, like, "She's fat.

I'm not even going to listen to her."

- The eating disorders, this is something serious.

This is not just something that people talk about,

"Oh, I'm on a diet."

People are losing their lives from this.

To help a young man or woman see

that beauty lies within themselves.

To help change legislation covering eating disorders

and mental illnesses.

To encourage publications and media to feature

real men and women of all sizes,

or to simply give someone fighting an eating disorder

the encouragement and hope to survive.

♪

- I'm certainly excited, I've been waiting for this all day.

Let's do this.

Perfect, guys, perfect.

Beautiful.

- Every single model, they have never been part of a shoot

that wasn't retouched.

I mean, how crazy is that?

The shoots I do--especially lingerie, I don't know,

I just feel like it's so much about looking at that body.

Let's make that body relatable, let's make that body real.

I have a platform now.

I wanted that platform so I could tell girls

that they aren't on their own

and that we're all in this together.

This image that we're looking at isn't real.

I know this because I've been modeling for 13 years.

I have pictures where I've done a magazine shoot,

my parents have gone to find me in the store

to buy the magazine, they couldn't find me.

I was Photoshopped so heavily

that they didn't even recognize their own daughter.

And I look at the images and I-- that doesn't make me feel good,

it doesn't make me feel beautiful.

For someone to decide that my arms should be half the size

or that I should have a thigh gap when I naturally don't

because that makes me better in some way,

I don't believe in that.

I don't believe that that's the images that we should be

taking in every day because I can't even be that image.

And it's me!

Because if we don't say what we want to see,

if we don't talk about the changes we want to happen,

they are not gonna happen.

That's the power that you guys have

because the magazines have to listen.

If you say, "Do you know what, I don't like this

"because it doesn't represent me and I don't like reading it

"because I don't see myself in it

and it doesn't make me feel good,"

if you don't buy it, then the magazine has to change,

it has to adapt.

And you know, maybe your kids, my kids,

aren't going to have the same body image issues because

they're going to see themselves

or they're going to feel less pressure to be perfect.

- I've always understood advertising's ability

to shape and influence attitudes and behaviors.

I'm like so many in the industry today,

which is we didn't pay that much attention, right?

Didn't look at the cumulative effect of the images

and the imagery that we were putting out there.

When my daughter was born I began to see the world

for the first time through the eyes of this little girl,

and I was forced to confront both my own privilege

and my own ignorance of how difficult we, in particular men,

in particular popular culture, have made it to grow up

a happy girl and become a sustainably happy woman.

Advertisements she sees on the way to school

and the advertisements that pop up when she's playing Minecraft,

they all begin to play a part in how she is going to see herself

and then what will create what she defines as ideals

and ideas and expectations, and I wanted to, um,

play a part in changing them

because I think it's completely fucked up.

Our bill focuses--make a blue sky bluer all day long,

put a smile on a dog, have at it.

Remove a wrinkle in a dress? Totally cool.

Change the--materially change the shape, size, proportion,

color, and/or enhance or remove individual characteristics

of the human in the ad,

that's what we're concerned about

because that's what causes, um, this public health crisis.

Photoshop is not the enemy-- that's not the problem.

The problem is when we confuse the fantasy

and the reality,

when we think the illusion is real.

That's the problem.

So Photoshop all you want, and just tell us you did it.

- If more brands could take that on, if more brands

could stop doing that traditional advertising,

we all now know that you can also advertise

in a more positive way,

and instead if you empower women and you make them feel good,

they're going to also want to buy into a product.

- I love modeling for Aerie because they don't retouch me.

It makes me feel good to work with them.

I'm not going to work with brands that aren't trying

to make a difference or do something good.

- When I launched Aerie Real I knew

that we had to listen to the consumer,

and all we kept hearing online, through social media,

through the customers-- even in the dressings rooms--

is them talking about their body and their body issues,

and so I just knew that we had to stop retouching our images,

we had to start showing girls of different sizes.

- We decided that intimate apparel is different,

and it's such a personal product and it means so much to women,

and what could we do that could actually influence

young girls today,

and how could we stand for something and create a platform

that means something from the heart?

- There was a small team of us, there was, again,

a director of copy, a graphic designer and myself

and then we got our photographer, casting agent

involved, and, um, did this whole thing in secret,

pretty much, alongside the rest of our jobs,

and then came back and pitched it to the leadership team.

It was scary for people.

It was definitely a mind-set change, you know,

about things like leaving the rolls and, you know,

things that, like, when a girl moves from side to side

these lines, these lines happen, like, you know,

in the past these would have been the things

that we would have taken out.

- Those moments are really controversial

because we're not used to seeing it.

I've been a model for 12 years, I know how to pose

so my stomach looks flat,

and I just happened to be twisting and I had some rolls.

And the amount of comments I received from that one picture,

"Ugh, she has a disease. Ugh, her stomach is disgusting.

"Has she had a C-section?

Oh, I didn't know they make bras for cows,"

like, all these terrible, terrible comments.

But I was excited in my head because I thought, wow,

that means no one's seen a real stomach like that

in a lingerie campaign, and I was like, thank God

that I can share those images and I'm proud of my body

and show that it's real and show that when you bend

you have rolls and all those natural things.

- When I first went in to pitch the idea, I did not know

and did not expect what an amazing sales growth

the brand has seen.

- You know, lo and behold, the business is on fire.

I can't wait to see what happens next.

- Okay, this is our June swimsuit feature.

We do a big swimsuit feature every June,

and we always make sure to shoot it on a woman

who has gorgeous curves because that's true

for most of our readers--it's true for most women in general--

and to celebrate a gorgeous, healthy, curvy body.

These are using Jennie Runk,

who I think she's one of the most gorgeous women

in the world, and the pictures, they're very, very joyful,

which I think is important.

- Actually in this month's issue of "Redbook,"

it's really exciting, it's my first swim spread in a magazine.

My fiancée's really excited about it.

She bought five copies of it and she's like...[laughing]

- Is it difficult being gay in the fashion industry?

- Not at all.

People, people love it, you know,

if anything people love it, love me even more.

They're like, "Oh, you're marrying a woman,

we're best friends now."

I think I was like, 17 when I came out.

It was such a weird experience, like, being in Missouri

and going through that because there--

I didn't know any gay people.

I didn't even know that it was a thing.

Like, I didn't even know it was a possibility.

I had no, like, literally zero exposure, zero exposure to,

like, anything LGBT.

I'm such a nerd--every time I'm unsure about something

I just do a bunch of research, so I got on Google

and I started Googling, like,

"How to come out of the closet," like, "What is a lesbian?

How do I be a lesbian?"

- What was the answer to that? [laughing]

- Googling, like, "I like kissing a girl, what now?"

Like, I don't know, you know, it was just such a weird, like,

and I didn't know any gay people,

I didn't know who to ask.

I think the first person I came out with was

the only out gay guy at my school, and I was like...

I was like, "I think I might be gay, what do I do?"

And he was like, "Get a girlfriend."

[laughing]

It was like, so weird.

- I would love to take your picture.

- You wanna get started?

- I do. - Okay.

[background conversations]

I've been doing this for 12 years,

and especially in plus-size modeling, like,

we all have completely different body types.

The responsibility is on everyone in the fashion

and media industry to help change the way

that we think of beauty so that girls all over the world

can see role models who look a little bit more like them

and can therefore feel better about themselves

and will therefore have the strength to go on

and realize their full potential.

- The plus-size thing for me is such a new, like, idea,

because obviously with straight modeling you don't meet girls

who are, you know, like that.

- That's where the surprise is.

People don't understand that you can't--there are times

where you can't even shop for clothes because they don't exist

and you've never had to consider that,

that's never been your reality.

Something that should be as easy as dressing yourself,

you can't, you know?

Growing up, it was always a problem, you know,

it was always a thing.

You're always trying to find clothes that--

there were no options for curvy teenagers.

- There are women out there who do not care about fashion,

but everyone has to wear clothes.

- I always joke that I either dressed as a goth

or a 50-year-old woman when I was in high school

because those were my options.

- Being plus size myself for so many years,

working in fashion from day one,

I was the girl that was sitting in fashion meetings,

never talking about what I had on,

just talking about the products.

I worked in a denim company for...

probably about 12 years and I could never wear the jeans.

- When you're a design student or even a fashion student--

I studied fashion merchandising--

you, you're shown the high-end designers of the world

and that's where you want to aspire to,

you're not really shown what the reality is.

Education of designers to design in plus has not been taught.

It is shocking.

- We need to educate from the very get-go,

inclusiveness within the fashion conversation, absolutely.

I think that's a key point.

All the people who are graduating design schools

around the world don't understand

how to deal with curves.

So if they're trained in school and they are taught

from the very beginning of their freshman year on how to drape

and work with, uh, size two, four and six, and 16, 18,

20, 22 forms and you just...

are required to work on all forms,

then they graduate knowing how to address a woman's body,

not just a size eight, two and six.

[applause]

♪

My name is Emme, and I am the world's first curvy supermodel.

[cheering and applause]

I went to Syracuse University and I said,

"Will you partner with me

and take on the Fashion Without Limits idea?"

- Emme came to us, she's an alum

of the Syracuse Historical Studies Program.

And I think she came to us because she saw lots and lots

of bad examples of, um, garments that have been designed

for smaller women just scaled up,

and all of the, all of the key dimensions were wrong.

She felt that there was a real gap of students

not really knowing how to engage in business.

- It hadn't really resonated yet as something

that we thought we needed to do.

We had never thought about expanding the size range

of our clothing.

- There are over 100 million women not catered for

by the classic output of the fashion industry.

- To see that 50% of American and British women

are over a size 12.

- For me it was almost a moment where I said,

who's reality counts here?

Is it the reality of the catwalk and the designers,

or is it the reality of these women who actually

can't find things that make them feel good?

- So when Emme came in and was explaining this to us,

we thought this is absolutely-- why would we not be doing this?

And why haven't we been doing this?

Why is everyone not doing this?

Why is this not just a norm?

In this program, our hope is that whatever

you guys can design, that will be an aspirational design,

would look beautiful in a size zero, it'll look beautiful

in a straight size six, and it will also look beautiful

in a size 18 or 20 or 22.

So it's just a matter of maybe slight variation to the design.

- I think it is critical that any academic institution

that gives a damn about this whole issue,

address it within the academic environment.

- Okay, and this is your design, okay?

I'll give you these.

We're actually doing plus-size right now.

As a team here we've been developing different ways

to put it into our program,

and because there really isn't anyone else doing it,

we've had to kind of figure it out very organically.

- Because it makes you a little more cognitive

of what you're doing.

It makes you a lot more aware of where things hang

and where things fall and how things fit.

- In my family, we have a lot of larger women too

and they have to wear very basic things and other--

it kind of helped me understand a little bit

because I see where they're coming from now

and that there's really a need...for new designs.

- The industry's obviously having issues trying to fit

plus-size women, and I think it's good to start now,

in school, learning how to do things for the younger, um,

the younger shopper, something that's more trendier.

- I don't think designing for plus-size is any more difficult.

I think it's just different.

- It doesn't present any more difficulties.

It's a matter of what are you-- what are you used to?

And it's a matter of learning, I mean, those who do it well

are those who understand the female figure

and understand ergonomics, how people move,

understand silhouette, proportion and fit.

It's not rocket science.

- You know, we don't want to end up with,

"This doesn't fit, she's too big."

We want to be able to have every fashion student

in the whole country and in the whole world

actually designing for real women and real men.

- Parsons is considered one of the top schools

in both the US and worldwide for fashion.

There's a very long list of very, um,

noteworthy alumni, from the program.

- It's so difficult and challenging to get

that academic department to do any kind of morphing

and adapting to new ways of thinking.

- That's a girl, okay.

- Why do you think that we're only teaching students

how to design and cut and drape on size six, eight, nine?

- I don't know.

It's an old model, and we're kind of stuck on the old model.

Somebody put the irons in backwards,

and after that everybody put the irons in backwards,

they were afraid to change it.

- I mean, we speak about it when we're, you know,

presenting how we want students to think.

We don't have classes specifically for that yet.

- So how are you learning to do your plus size here?

- I mean, it's been kind of, um,

a self-taught journey, I think, um...

For my first three years of college,

I was always designing for a size six, and, you know,

I always felt bad about myself because it's like, you know,

I'm making clothes and I'm never going to be able to wear this.

I grew up here in Miami and I was bullied my entire life

because I've always been on the chubby side.

And I moved to the Dominican Republic when I was 14.

In the Dominican Republic being plus-size

is not much of an issue,

and thankfully over there, slowly,

I started gaining my self-confidence again.

I came back and then I was kind of bombarded again with that,

um...kind of bullying because, you know, adults bully.

It was my last semester of junior year

that I decided, you know, enough is enough,

I'm not gonna keep designing for a size that I will never be.

And...I just decided, let's just do plus-size...

'cause it's who I am.

You know, living in a society where you're not accepted,

it's hard not being accepted.

And...I want to change that, and I'm going to change that.

- Like, all of us feel inadequate no matter

where we are, unfortunately.

But for me, as an image maker, I don't see it that way.

This cast of characters, we all play different roles.

Your thing is that you are our Serena.

That's so sexy. - Yeah it is.

- And I think we need to see it as being very sexy

because that's how I see it.

- People don't, and I grew up being very insecure

about the way I looked because people thought

I was too muscular or too masculine, not enough chest

and no hips, I just never felt, like, sexy.

There's still certain things in the industry

that are still so far behind.

A lot of the women that they're choosing for fitness campaigns

are not-- they're not fit, like, they don't look strong,

they don't look healthy in terms of consuming food.

- Yeah. - I'm an athlete,

and I would want my daughter to see women that look like me

running, playing basketball, playing soccer or hockey.

I'm a little bit too big for what they want to cast

for fitness models, which is odd--I'm an athlete.

I should actually be the perfect body type or build

for those kind of projects,

and I lose out all the time to people smaller than me.

They're using very slim models to portray

this strong fitness persona,

and real athletes do not look like that.

[background conversations]

[camera clicking]

- It's something different, to design for every woman,

but it's certainly achievable.

Women should feel, "I'm being treated equally."

- I don't feel like there is one "right" way to look,

and I think that most women feel exactly that same way.

But we need to keep underlining that,

and keep underlining the fact that beauty comes

in all sorts of shapes and sizes.

- And if you could re-imagine beauty and re-imagine fashion

to feel represented, what would it look like?

- Um, I think I'd like to see a lot more diversity, um,

like, women of color or women that are a lot darker

and not white-washed and Photoshopped.

- Different skin colors, different heights,

different weights.

- The fashion industry shouldn't worry about your race

or your size or...anything.

I think it should be about, like, who fits,

like, the image of your brand.

- Having more representation on who is modeling the clothes

in general, and showing that, like,

people of all different weights and all different sizes

can be beautiful.

- You have to celebrate everyone.

It really is about all different types of women.

How are you?

Nice to see you again-- thank you.

Okay, you want to do a little walk?

Go up and back?

That's okay.

Thank you so much.

- Thank you. - Thank you.

Any woman that walks into our studio, um,

it doesn't click in our head, like, oh, she's a bigger size,

let's figure out how we're gonna do this.

It just--we just don't-- that just doesn't happen.

Why I'm proud of my work,

I love that we can dress women of all these different ages,

all these different sizes.

You know, women like Danielle, women like Oprah,

and then women like Sarah Hyland, who is small and petite,

and Gwyneth Paltrow, who is tall and slender

and also beautiful, they're all beautiful in their own way.

[camera clicking]

- Being a fashion designer,

it's our choice whether we choose to make our samples

in size zero, size six, size 20--that's a decision that we,

as fashion designers, are making, are empowered to make,

and no one's telling us otherwise, so I feel like

it's a personal responsibility for me

and everyone on the Chromat team to open up

what is considered a standard runway size and build pieces

in all different sizes and show women and the next generation

of girls and anyone on the gender spectrum

that they are all, like, part of our world and is someone

that we want to celebrate.

Do you feel like it should be tighter

or do you think it's good?

- Uh, I feel like it's good.

- So easy. [laughs]

Awesome.

You want to do, like, a little walk?

There's definitely no excuse for anyone else to, like,

choose only one size for their runway.

I don't know why people do that.

I mean, actually, I do-- because it's probably easier.

All of your products are the same, you just copy and paste.

It takes a little more hard work to do custom fit garments

for each of your runway models.

- Oh, my God, I'm so excited to be here.

- Aww.

So for you we have kind of like a beach cover-up vibe.

- Nice--so it's pretty much naked.

- Yeah. [laughs]

- Cool.

- Denise Bidot was the first curved model

to ever walk in our show,

and so she holds a special place in Chromat history.

♪

- ♪ Yeah yeah

♪ Yeah yeah yeah

- When we started having our runway shows,

from the beginning we've always cast diverse women.

And in the beginning it was so frustrating

because all the press would be about that.

And I was like, so upset, I was, what--I spent six months

working on these garments and that's--no one cares.

But then this season, reading our reviews

after the runway shows,

it made me realize that I was so proud

that this was what we represent

and this is what people know us as.

And I hope to get to one day where that's not news anymore.

I want that to not be news, I want that to not be shocking.

I want everyone else to be as shocked as I am.

When you see-- open up a magazine

and see page after page of beauty ads of all white women--

like, I want that to be shocking.

[background conversations]

- One like, across here.

- Yeah.

- Can I get her to be here for a quick five minute--

oh, when you're done with her?

Yeah, yeah! Yum!

- So, when I was pulling this way,

I was really thinking about this for you guys...

This, this...

When you guys come together and it's really emotive,

that's where that magic is gonna happen.

- We have 80 million women in this nation

who are larger than a size 12.

They want to spend money, they want options.

What's so befuddling and perplexing for me is

where is retail in all this?

[marching band playing]

- There's a huge growth opportunity we think

for the full women's business,

which has been flat for many years, um, with really the,

the, the smaller sizes in decline

and the plus sizes in growth.

- People--girls, men, women, children--are starting

to finally be encouraged that everyone is created equal

and that, uh, we should all be able to go into a store

and find clothes that fit our bodies.

- And not be ashamed to find clothes that fit our bodies.

- Yeah. - No one wants to walk around

in a Mumu--we want trendy, sexy, fabulous, fearless,

unapologetically gorgeous,

amazing outfits.

- Since day one I think our main mission

is to address the body itself.

It's not just the clothes that you put on the body,

but it's the actual body itself

because that's where the stigma exists, um, that that body

somehow is not worthy of being shown or being celebrated.

♪

- ♪ Baby one more time

♪ Oh oh oh

♪ Uh-oh

♪ Oh oh oh

- The body positivity message has always been very much

at the center of all these ad campaigns that we've done,

all these initiatives, and always doing it

with a little bit of sass, a lot of confidence,

a lot of love for these women.

And we just want everybody to forget that

they're plus-size women.

We just want them to think of them as women.

- But it's not just a women's issue.

I think everybody has cause or reason to be concerned about

where we are in society and the movement towards inclusivity

and diversity in general.

I'm a father of six, five of those are daughters,

and four of those are between the ages of 15 and 21 today.

And so I've watched the journey and the pressure that they feel,

so as a father, watching young women grow to the future,

wildly concerned that we make progress in this place.

- I think that everyone's open to seeing a new normal.

- Things are happening.

- I've been in the New York market for about 18 years now,

and I've seen it stop and start several times,

and this movement feels much different than any in the past.

It's sustainable, and the public's behind it.

- Because of social media,

for the first time ever, in a very powerful way,

we all have a voice that we did not have a decade ago.

We all have a way to speak out actively

and to activate against brands, to activate against issues,

to activate against one another, for the betterment of society.

- As models we're now spokespersons for ourselves,

but as spokespersons for our industry we're responsible

for a lot of the way that young girls and young boys,

and in fact everyone sees themselves.

- Social media has given me visibility.

It's meant that now I'm more than a zed card,

I'm more than a comp card,

I'm more than just a set of measurements.

I'm able to have a voice, I'm able to share knowledge.

- And I think if each and every one of us acknowledges

the responsibility that we have and we use our own little voices

in every single way that we have to go out there and speak,

we can affect change.

- That's a wrap, ladies!

[cheering and applause]

- And the illusion fades.

We're back to being normal.

[background conversations]

♪

- All the kisses.

- Oh, look at them.

- Thanks for that one.

- To everyone there!

- Bye, ladies! - Bye!

- You got it?

- I am very conscious about

how an image may be perceived now more than ever.

For me it's about portraying these women

in a very intentional light,

not just in this project but kind of in everything that I do.

I want to send messages that are important--empower women,

diverse bodies, range of ethnicities--

those are the messages I want to communicate.

[background conversations]

- It still needs to, like, get farther to seeing, like,

every type of person.

- I still want to see girls of all shapes and sizes

and, like, races.

- Being represented in a magazine makes you feel good

and happy about yourself, and you say that, you know,

you're worthy of this and you're proud to be

who you are and...yeah.

[background conversations]

- And I think it's really important that every girl

has that kind of realization in her head

and that same opportunity to look at herself and say,

"I am enough and I am beautiful."

- So that anybody who looks like one of these women is like,

"Oh, like, she's so beautiful,

like, and I look like her, so that makes me beautiful too."

- Like, my biggest kept secret is that the difference between

photographing straight-size women and plus-size women

is there is no difference.

Any experienced photographer

with a great eye and a strong technical foundation

can capture any size woman in any way.

It's nothing to do with the technical aspect of photography

and everything to do with the perspective of the individual.

- Hi, I'm Nicolette, nice to meet you.

- I love it!

I have not been to an exhibition

and seen such diversity of size, colors,

of different ages, ever.

- It's like... it feels like a dream.

- I'm so happy!

This is awesome!

Can you take a picture with me? - Of course.

- You don't see this amount of diversity anywhere

in one showing, it's really beautiful.

The evolution has been really 20 years in the making,

but it--we're, we're getting there.

[background conversations]

- That's what I want to see more of

in the fashion industry just seeing just bodies

that look like mine and my mother's and my sister's.

- I feel like if you don't see representation,

you don't understand that this-- these sort of things exist

or you don't understand that you are normal.

- It helps seeing stuff like this for girls like me

who grew up with the very... idea that we have to conform.

- When you see other girls that are actually represented

in your body type, it's like, wow, I really can do anything.

I can do whatever I want,

I can have this body and still appreciate myself.

- It makes me feel hopeful.

- I've been waiting to see these kind of images

for my entire life.

- There's a real sea change happening,

particularly around gender, around women,

who are demanding to be visible and to be seen

in photography and video across the board.

And I think it's something that we all have to be mindful,

as image creators, to be as inclusive as we possibly can.

- I feel overwhelmed. [laughing]

I'm not gonna cry, I'm not gonna cry.

- Don't do it! - I'm not gonna do it--whoo!

- Stop!

- I think that seeing high-end imagery

is just going to inspire people to make more high-end imagery,

at least I hope.

[laughing]

♪

- There is not one standard of beauty anymore.

There is no cookie cutter pretty anymore.

Women come in all shapes and sizes,

and if we all suddenly wanted to look exactly alike,

how sad would that be, and how boring.

- We absolutely must find ways to stop

weight-related discrimination and stigma.

- No one is motivated towards healthy behavior

by feeling ashamed.

We have to move towards a more diverse picture.

- It just needs to happen and eventually we all look around

and realize that we're surrounded by a diversity

of images and body types and skin colors and realize,

good heavens, this is a much richer world

that we're living in.

♪

- We have to move because it affects

our future generations of women.

- So let's push the needle forward

and to make it really happen.

♪

[upbeat music]

- ♪ Why you hanging in the background ♪

♪ Like a painting that's been turned round ♪

♪ Come on, come on, come on, come on ♪

♪ Come on, come on, come on, come on ♪

♪ Why you humming with your mouth shut ♪

♪ It's like Aretha singing back-up ♪

♪ Come on, come on, come on, come on ♪

♪ You know the words, go write the song ♪

♪ Make it loud

♪ It's your time now

♪ Can you feel it now

♪ You got the heart of a phoenix ♪

♪ So let them see you rise

♪ Hey, hey

♪ Let them know that you mean it ♪

♪ Let them see you rise

♪ Hey, hey

♪ You feel it burn when you're knocked down ♪

♪ But let the fire be your crown ♪

♪ Come on, come on, come on, come on ♪

♪ Come on, come on, come on, come on ♪

♪ Go and claim your kingdom

♪ Then slay all your demons ♪

♪ Come on, come on, come on, come on ♪

♪ I know you know where you belong ♪

♪ Don't look now

♪ But you're off the ground

♪ Can you feel it now

♪ You got the heart of a phoenix ♪

♪ So let them see you rise

♪ Hey, hey

♪ Let them know that you mean it ♪

♪ Let them see you rise

♪ Hey, hey

♪ Let's see you show how high you can go ♪

♪ Flying right past the ones who said no ♪

♪ Let's give them all one hell of a show ♪

♪ Hey, hey

♪ You got the heart of a phoenix ♪

♪ So let them see you rise

♪ Hey, hey

♪ You got the heart, you got the heart ♪

♪ You got the heart of a, heart of a, hey ♪

♪ You got the heart, you got the heart ♪

♪ You got the heart of a, heart of a, hey ♪

♪ You got the heart, you got the heart ♪

♪ You got the heart of a, heart of a, hey ♪

♪ You got the heart, you got the heart ♪

♪ You got the heart of a, heart of a ♪

♪ You go the heart of a phoenix ♪

♪ So let them see you rise

♪ Hey, hey

♪ Let them know that you mean it ♪

♪ Let them see you rise

♪ Hey, hey

♪ You got the heart of a phoenix ♪

♪ So let them see you rise

♪ Hey, hey

♪ Let them know that you mean it ♪

♪ Let them see you rise

♪ Hey, hey...