A Mississippi native and plus-sized model named Tess Holliday (more popularly known as Tess Munster) is making waves across the United States. Tess is a size 22. Never before has the modeling world recognized, much less contracted a woman or man of that size.

Holliday was found on Instagram. Her account features many pictures of her clad in bikinis and underwear. She even posted one picture of her and her husband cuddling in bed. In the picture, she appears to be naked.

I am a firm believer that the modeling world creates false expectations for women. Just because you aren’t wafer-thin doesn’t mean you aren’t beautiful. The nation used to praise Marilyn Monroe for her curves. Today, magazines and other publications use Photoshop to cut away at their cover girls who, like most women, haven’t fit into a size two since high school.

Holliday is breaking ground. She is going where no woman of her size has ever been before. She is bold and she is beautiful.

With all of that being said, some of her pictures on Instagram go a little too far. I understand she is trying to make a statement while posing half-naked for the camera; but at the same time, it’s just encouraging other women who are her size, smaller or bigger, to overexpose themselves on social media.

Yes, she is making a very good point and there are women across the nation who relate to her in some way or another, but I think some of what she is doing just makes her look as trashy as the skinny, skimpy women on the cover of some magazines.

Also, I hope that she truly does live a healthy lifestyle, as is stated in some articles written about her. Her height and weight put her at risk for many health complications in the future. I’m not being judgmental and I do believe everyone should love the body God gave him or her; but the facts are the facts. She has a baby and a husband and I just hope she does indeed go hiking and eats healthy foods because otherwise, they could end up losing her way earlier than expected.

Aside from my disagreements with some of her tactics, Holliday will change the world of modeling. She has already begun to. She is showing the world that though she is far from a size zero or a size two, she can still be confident and can still dress fierce for a night on the town.

Everyone can learn something from Tess, in one way or another, and we should all stand together to #effbodystandards.