April Hélène-Horton’s mission to uplift marginalised voices

A year after making history as the first plus-size model on an Australian billboard in a bikini April Hélène-Horton spoke about how her and others are tackling marginalisation online.

A year after making history, much-loved Southern Tablelands local April Hélène-Horton spoke to The Bowral News about her recent initiatives, struggles as a content creator and continued activism for marginalised communities who are “squeezed out of the frame”.

The Goulburn body-positive activist who was the first plus-size model on an Australian billboard in a bikini, recently joined forces with an app aimed to help women and non-binary creators monetise their content.

“The idea behind ‘Sunroom’ is that it wants to protect creator’s content and psychological safety,” Ms Hélène-Horton said.

Content creator, activist and model April Hélène-Horton admiring herself on a national billboard.

“I think one of the main things as a content creator who is in a bit of a niche is that’s it’s really hard to get paid to do work that is for the greater good.

“And by monetising it upfront, the conversation doesn’t have to be had later.

“Not after you’ve spent five hours talking to someone about this really important but quite sensitive issue that’s draining, which I really should charge for because I’ve just provided a consultancy.”

Co-founded by former design director at Hinge, Lucy Mort, and former director at Bumble, Michelle Battersby, Sunroom aims to create a space that doesn’t censor people’s businesses around topics like sexuality, sex education, body image, gender identity and more.

The app, which launched this month, can also give creators more control of their content, featuring an industry first anti-screenshot technology called SunBlock.

“The times I’ve received a community guidelines violation on Instagram I either thought ‘oh, sorry’ or ‘actually, no, there’s no violation – you guys are just over censoring specific body types,” Ms Hélène-Horton said.

“The fact that Instagram has learned through human behaviour what gets recorded and flagged are brown, black, indigenous, fat, and disabled bodies, shows Sunroom versus all the other apps is a safe place for me,” Ms Hélène-Horton said.

“There’s no sort of algorithmic need to fight against people, and no shadow banning. People will subscribe if they like your stuff.”

Ms Hélène-Horton was the 2019 'Lilac Queen' at Goulburn's annual Lilac Festival. Picture: Jim Webb

Ms Hélène-Horton, who has worked and lived across Sydney and Canberra, moved back to Goulburn when she was pregnant with her first child.

It was a huge turning point for herself and career.

“I think pre-baby-me and me now barely know each other, in the sense that the way I thought about bodies has changed so significantly,” Ms Hélène-Horton said.

“Since I had a baby I realised I can’t instil those values and those thoughts into him.”

As a content creator, Ms Hélène-Horton acknowledges the layer of performativity on social media, and how that can lead to self-justifications, particularly as a marginalised person, of why something deserves to be seen.

“I had a realisation that I was spending a lot of time trying to create a caption to go with an image to justify or to explain why I felt like I belonged there looking the way that I did,” Ms Hélène-Horton said.

“Why can’t I just turn up and be cute?”

Ms Hélène-Horton being cute. Picture: Kylie Johnson

As her social platforms are dedicated to body acceptance and “fat positivity”, there are often times where she will get comments from people criticising her posts and asking why she’s not promoting their perception of ‘health’.

“Firstly it’s wildly ableist to assume that health is the most important thing someone can have. Because suddenly people who have chronic health conditions, people who are terminally ill, people who are mentally unwell, are not doing their best.”

“Villainising people for what they can’t help is oppression.

“I just think this assessment of people’s worthiness, whether it’s health positivity and moralising health, or whether it’s freedom fighting for the freedoms only of people lucky, no one else, is a really uncomfortable and gross reflection on the ways that we’ve been perpetuating this oppression.”

Ms Hélène-Horton is looking forward to continuing her work as “ being a stepping stone’ and amplifying people whose voices get spoken over or “squeezed out of the frame.”

“I think it’s a good thing for people to come to my page because they resonate with what I say, because they’re living in a bigger body,” Ms Hélène-Horton said.

“And then for me to say, yes. But also, did you know that trans people are amazing? Did you know that disabled people don’t need pity?

“I foresee there are good things ahead and I’m looking forward to being part of the change, and then seeing it come to fruition.”