Tess Holliday is detailing her experience trying to obtain life insurance.
“I’m sorry, yes. I did think that I could get life insurance as a 40-year-old, non-smoking, non-drinking, non-health-issue-having human,” Holliday shared in a video via TikTok on Thursday, February 26. “That was honestly my bad. That was my bad. I know.”
She continued, “Um, am I 5 foot 3 and do I weigh over 300 pounds? And an apparently that makes me ineligible for, uh, life insurance. Yeah, it does. It does. Do I work out every single day and have no pre-existing conditions or take any kind of medication? Yeah, I do. But hey, I also understand that the medical industrial complex um, you know, is fatphobic and inherently, uh, the system is broken.”
The model went on to say that in the end she understands that it’s “my dad” and “on me” for trying to obtain life insurance in the first place.
“And honestly, it won’t happen again,” she concluded. “Um, that lesson [is] learned.”
It is not uncommon for insurance companies to deny applicants based on their body mass index (BMI) or weight, despite recent studies showing that the metric is flawed and does not adequately assess a person’s health. One 2024 study found that 80 percent of patients living with obesity experienced stigma, judgment and shame while attempting to navigate various healthcare settings.
Holliday has been a fierce body positive advocate since she launched the #effyourbeautystandards movement via Instagram in 2013.
@tessholliday AAA you did me dirty man #lifeinsurance #oops #advice #lol
“We started Eff Your Beauty Standards in 2013 because we were tired of being told our bodies were problems to fix instead of lives to honor,” the movement’s official Instagram account wrote on February 17, announcing a relaunch of the group’s efforts more than a decade after its start.
“What began as a hashtag became a place where people could feel seen,” the post continued. “Then it became a community. Then a movement. We went quiet, not because the work was done, but because we needed time to grow, to heal, and to imagine what this could become in a world that keeps trying to erase us.”
The post continued, “We are coming back now because diversity, bodily autonomy, and human rights are under attack. The work is far from over and the people who found safety here deserve that space again.”
Currently, Hollywood is arguably experiencing a resurgence of thinned-down looks as semaglutides, a.k.a GLP-1 drugs, like Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro gain in popularity and drop in price. Everyone from Serena Williams to Rebel Wilson, Amy Schumer and Lizzo have been open about using the weight loss drug to shrink in size and manage their mental and physical health.
“There are real-life, real-world human impacts for cultural shifts around the pro-weight-loss culture that we’re in right now because of GLP-1s and the way they’re being marketed,” cultural critic Virgie Tovar, an ambassador for Weight Stigma Awareness Week, shared via Instagram after she experienced fat-shaming while attending New York Fashion Week 2025.
“Ending weight stigma is the only way to end weight stigma,” Tovar wrote in another Instagram post on January 29. “Asking people to shrink their bodies is NOT ending weight stigma. It is REINFORCING weight stigma.”
