#EffYourBeautyStandards: Behind-The-Scenes With Tess Holliday

Watch our video interview with size 26 beauty icon Tess Holliday, as she tells us how to be a supermodel...

US model Tess Holliday is an Instagram sensation, beauty icon and leader of the global size-inclusive movement. At a UK size 26, she's the largest model ever to be signed by a major agency - Milk Management in New York. But she's more than a model - she's outspoken, calls out the industry for a lack of diversity, and is aiming to change the rhetoric around being 'fat' (her words), with a social-media campaign called #effyourbeautystandards.

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All of which explains exactly why we were so keen to shoot her for the December issue of Marie Claire (out now). Wearing a custom William Wilde dress and rainbow-bright eyeshadow, Tess and the Marie Claire team headed to God's Own Junkyard in London, where she wowed the photographer and proved her point: size has nothing to do with how beautiful you are.

'I think it's really important in fashion to be adventurous and to try new things and take risks,' Tess told in between shooting, as we asked for a few tips for feeling more confident in front of the camera. 'Some of my favourite things in my closet I wouldn't have ever worn before trying on. I was definitely afraid of crop tops, I was afraid of bikinis and showing my arms, and earrings that constrict your movements, like when they get stuck.'

'Your photographer on set is your best friend,' she adds. 'It's really great to have a rapport with the photographer and find your ebb and flow with them and work off of their emotions and their reactions and vice versa to get a great image. And most importantly, always try and be polite on set.'

Marie Claire / Diana Gomez

READ OUR FULL INTERVIEW WITH TESS IN THE DECEMBER ISSUE OF MARIE CLAIRE, OUT NOW