If Sex and The City taught us nothing, it’s that New Yorkers love their fashion.
Meet Egypt ‘Ify’ Ufele who, at just 10 years of age, is the city’s newest fashion sensation.
Ify was mercilessly teased about her weight in primary school, once she was even stabbed with a pencil.
Rather than letting the bullies drag her down, to empower herself, and other children like her, she started designing plus-sized clothes.
At first it she was just drawing and hand-stitching outfits for her dolls, then she graduated to her Grandmother’s sewing machine.
Ify then started to share photos of her work — for children and grown-ups — on her Instagram account (the handle is @bullychasers, by the way).
Over weekend, she launched her label ChubiiLine on the runway at small show for Full Blossom Magazine at New York Fashion Week.
“I turned negative attention into positive attention,” she told US show Today, after making her her debut.
She is not the first child to have a show at New York Fashion Week, but Ify is the only one to have dressed plus-size women.
Plus-sized model Ashley Graham talks about learning to lover her body as a plus-sized model in her 2015 Tedx Talk.
Her work — which features bold African-inspired designs — has is being celebrated by anti-bullying groups and fashion lovers alike.
“Being a designer and being at fashion shows are really exciting because you get a lot of attention, and a lot of people ask you what inspires you,” she said.
Top Comments
This story makes me uncomfortable, there's nothing positive about being obese as a young child. My 5-year-old cousin is obese, and it is appalling. It's appalling that her parents are doing nothing about it, and let it happen. It's painful to watch, and devastating to see her next to her peers.
This child should be encouraged and supported by her family, along with medical professionals to make healthy changes and lose weight for the sake of her wellbeing. Instead, she's being encouraged to accept her obesity and celebrate it. This is NOT a good mindset to have, it's not truly empowering, and it's not setting her up for a healthy and long future.
It's great that she's fighting back against bullies, but I could never agree that 10-year-olds accepting obesity as okay, to the point they launch a plus-size label is a good thing.
So let's assume that we can actually control our weight beyond a small range (current research and set point theory suggests we do not have such control) - are fat children not allowed to have anything nice to wear while they lose weight? (and I use fat as a descriptor not a put down, to me it is much better than than the awful medical-ised "obese" and "overweight" - over what weight??) more to the point, weight should actually be irrelevant. It's about health and healthy behaviours. Are you socially connected? Do you have the funds to have access to medical care? Do you have access to fresh, whole foods and do you enjoy some movement most days? Do you have a sense of purpose and minimal stress?? We know Ify is ticking at least some of these (her fashion label is a fab sense of purpose and way to connect). The others we cannot know from the details in the story - and no, you cannot and should not make assumptions about a persons health based on their body size and shape. What we do know, is that shaming a person - including your horrible implication that they do not deserve nice clothing - is horrendous for a persons health, especially a child. I can only hope you do not shame your cousin in this way in her presence. If you'd like a different perspective, please research HAES
Agreed, being fat at 5 or 10 is a life sentence unless the adults in their lives take control and nip it in the bud.
Their whole body chemistry is changed and early diabetes2 a huge possibility.
An active child that eats mainly good food is not obese. To become actually obese means too many calories in and not enough out. The set point theory is a fairly newish idea and in a society of plenty there is definitely something about it, but why is obesity a fairly new problem?If the set point theory is a definite one, why did we not see obesity to such an extend 30 years ago or any other time in history?
I would also argue with the HAES movement that, yes, you can judge someone's health by wether they are obese or not. Just because some obese people are still healthy, in the long term the health problems will come for the majority of them. I am not talking about having a few spare kilos and enjoying the good things in life in moderation. I am talking about medically obese and if children are already obese, it will create a problem in their later life. And yes, everyone should have stylish clothes. That is beside the point. I am just against normalising a potential health problem in children. Not shaming anyone!!!.