The Bite Magazine - Autumn/Winter 2021 - Issue 30

Paige Stoveld Dawn Hunt speaks to plus-size model Paige Stoveld about her experiences in the modelling industry and her aspirations. bitemodelprofile Model Profile More Than A Pretty Face E mpowered. That word seems to be everywhere at the mo- ment. Webster’s Dictionary defines the essential meaning of the word as follows: to give power to (someone). After the last insane year-and-a-half that we’ve all endured, we should feel incredibly empowered for simply surviving, let alone try- ing to earn any additional personal accomplishments! However, there is one particular shift I’ve seen emerge from our time in quarantine and lockdown that is utterly amazing! One that has long been wished for, discussed in hushed tones behind runway shows and buyers meetings, begged for by a mass demograph- ic and yes, while it’s been attempted, it’s never seemed to find a strong and permanent foothold in the business. Ladies and gentlemen, what I’m talking about is the new era of empowered beauty equality that has at long last found a home in the model- ling industry! One such individual helping to lead this empowered change in the field is my friend, Miss Paige Stoveld. A fellow Purdue Uni- versity graduate and Midwesterner hailing from outside of Phil- adelphia, I would have the great fortune of meeting her during my internship in London. It would be in a humble converted row house near Earl’s Court that I’d meet the lovely and talented Stoveld. And honest to God, a true blonde bombshell inside and out, a whiz at navigating the Tube and literal expert on knowing the best places to shop; Paige was a very welcomed new friend. What I didn’t know is that this already capable cosmopolitan would later turn out to be one of the most self-empowered wom- en and gorgeous models I’d know personally. Having earned her degree in Mass Communications with a focus in Broadcast Journalism, Stoveld has a talent for being incredibly comfortable in front of a camera. This professionalism may have been supported by the fact that she was a teen model, who was scouted by her friend’s sister when she was 15 years old. “This story is always so crazy to me because it still feels like it was yes- terday. I was 15 and a friend of mine, her older sister was in the fashion industry, and kept telling me that I HAD to model.” However, despite this eager encouragement, Stoveld didn’t feel the same level of excitement. “At the time, to be honest, I didn’t like myself. I was always bigger (at the time I was a size 10, which was ‘big’ back then) and didn’t get why she was so passionate about me meeting with this top agent. I was a kid in high school at the time who didn’t fit in. I was bullied all the time and more interested in playing tennis at the time. But anyway, I went! My mother took me in and they snapped a few digitals of me and next thing you knew I was signed with FORD.” “My contract did not last forever though – I came in with no experience, didn’t know myself enough to be confident on set the way you need to be to get those perfect shots, and I want- ed to go to college. So, my contract was ended two years later when I turned 18 and was attending college in the Midwest. At the time I didn’t care to be completely honest because I wanted to be the next Erin Andrews. That’s all I cared about then.” But it wasn’t until rather recently that Stoveld found her way back to modelling and this time, with a far more positive attitude and empowered outlook. She too had been waiting and watching how the tides were a-changin’ and saw that models were in- deed being hired in an array of shapes and sizes, not just the industry standard size zero. However, the average woman is not a size zero. As written by Mary Nunes for Byrdie.com, “The average size of an Amer- ican woman has historically been reported as a size 14. The clothing industry somewhat took this into account and ad- justed its sizes. Though, most labels didn't even do that; the majority of clothing lines still sell up to size 12 and that's it.” Then, a study published in 2016 in the International Journal of Fashion Design, Technology, and Education revealed that, “The average size of an Amer- ican woman is now between 16 to 18, which is an increase from 10-year-old data that indicated most women in the US were a size 14. This information even further brings to light the need for clothing in sizes above the previously acceptable num- bers. It's infuriating, really, and it's time something tangible is done to rectify the long-stand- ing oversight.'” Absurd, ridicu- lous, downright stupid is more like it. “I think the best part of my modelling career was when I was resigned in my late 20’s with Wilhelmina. (Just a note, I am currently with One Man- agement). I loved myself and knew the timing was right be- cause of that and with the larger scale of sizes being represented and normalised, it just all felt right,” stated Stoveld. When I asked if she’d ever regretted waiting, she replied, “I truly do not have a