Australian model Jess King uploaded a photo celebrating her Size 14 body, and the internet didn’t like it

Celebrated curve model Jess King used to cut the labels off her clothes. She may have been dragged online for celebrating her size, “but some people will always be ignorant”.

Curve model Jess King is the ambassador for the Bella Model Management search this year. Picture: Jason Edwards.

Curve model Jess King won’t be deterred from her highly successful modelling career by negative comments she receives online.

The size 14 model vividly remembers uploading a photo after Melbourne Fashion Fesitval last year.

She paired a low-cut dress from Erik Yvon, with a custom G-string by lingerie designer KissKill emblazoned with the words: ‘SIZE FOURTEEN’ in gold diamantés.

“At the height of my disordered eating I would religiously rip all the size tags off every item of clothing I wore,” King captioned the photographs.

“I carried so much shame and placed so much importance on a singular number that not much else mattered. If that number wasn’t good enough in my mind (which it rarely was) I didn’t feel good enough.

“Today is about celebrating how far I’ve come in owning this body.”

The comments, and the headlines, came thick and fast.

They can be summurarised with: ‘She’s too fat to be a model’.

“You can’t get deterred by these sorts of comments,” King told Confidential.

“There will be people who are quite ignorant. The whole reason I do what I do is to spread the message of diversity and body confidence and you can’t let a few comments affect that — so I’ll definitely be at AFW in Sydney and Melbourne in 2024.”

King has been modelling since the age of 15 and ‘plus size’ modelling since she was 20.

“Unfortunately I went through a couple years of disordered eating that really affected my confidence,” she said.

“The industry itself was telling me I was too curvy, too big. The average Australian woman is size 14-16, and at that time, I couldn’t grapple with being plus size at a size 12.”

Curve model Jess King is the ambassador for the Bella Model Management search this year. Picture: Jason Edwards\

However, she signed up for a plus size modelling contest, which she won.

King went on to work with Australian fashion brands Spell, Cosmopolitan, and to be the first size 14 model for Jeans West.

“It’s why have a soft spot for these competitions because I know how it can start someone’s career like it did mine,” she said.

“I always thought I would only ever be successful if I was a size 6.

“It still blows my mind I’ve been able to achieve these things. That’s how it should be.”

King is fronting Bella Model Management’s next national model search, which is open for entries online until Sunday, April 14.

“The judges are looking for someone who is uniquely themselves and who celebrates that,” King said.

There are zero barriers to entry and the winner will feature in a lingerie campaign for Nala, and land a three-year modelling contract.

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