Georgina Burke is not a fan of using the term “plus size” model.
The Australian public figure, who landed a coveted spot in Sports Illustrated‘s 2022 swimsuit issue, told Stellar magazine that the title is behind the times
“If you put labels on anyone – whether it’s age, colour, size, sex – I feel like it’s so outdated,” the 31-year-old beauty said.
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“I don’t think I need to be labelled as ‘plus size’. In the beginning, it was an industry term, whereas now, [the industry] is so open and everyone is really coming on board,” she continued.
Burke expressed how the “labels” have “changed from ‘plus size’ to ‘size inclusive’, to ‘curve’, to this, to that.”
“I’m in Sports Illustrated as a model – it’s not, ‘Whatever number plus-size model to be in [the magazine],” she told the Australian publication. “It’s like, no, there’s a model in Sports Illustrated! We’ve made huge progress, that’s for sure.”
PARADISE found.
Georgina Burke brought the heat to Barbados! See her rookie shoot here: https://t.co/cRblotx3fJ
— Sports Illustrated Swimsuit (@SI_Swimsuit) May 18, 2022
In April, Burke told The Courier Mail that she was bullied as a teenager and struggled with “fitting in.”
“I was a big kid – tall and wide. Kids would call me every name in the book and throw my lunch across the playground,” she explained.
The Brisbane native, who now lives in New York, said that the United States is more accepting of curve models than Australia, who has yet to catch up to the industry’s “beauty standards.”
Burke added that she was bullied so bad at primary school that her parents pulled her out to attend a private girls’ high school instead, but, “even there I didn’t fit in.”
“By then I was used to being different, so I’d die my hair all sorts of colours. I was always the odd one out,” she continued.
Burke, a former law student, is recognized for her size-friendly, fully adjustable swimwear company called Burke NYC, which she launched in 2019.
