I have been watching something happen in the plus-size community lately, and I think we need to talk about it.
GLP-1 medications are everywhere.
Ozempic. Wegovy. Zepbound. Weight-loss journeys. Before-and-after photos. Influencers dropping sizes. Celebrities suddenly looking different. Conversations that once centered on body positivity are increasingly becoming conversations about weight loss.
But the medication itself isn't what made me stop and think.
It was something I started hearing from women who built platforms while being plus-size.
After losing weight, some began saying things like:
“I was never really comfortable being that size.”
And every time I hear some version of that statement, I think about the woman who is still that size.
The woman who followed you because she saw herself in you.
The woman who finally put on the bikini.
The woman who finally stopped covering herself at the pool.
The woman who finally looked in the mirror and decided that her life didn't need to wait until she became smaller.
So I started wondering:
Are GLP-1s destroying the plus-size community?
My answer is more complicated than yes or no.
First, GLP-1s aren't the enemy
Let's get something straight before the internet starts internetting. 😂
This isn't an anti-GLP-1 article.
These are real medications with legitimate medical uses. The FDA has approved medications in this class for chronic weight management in certain adults with obesity or overweight and related health conditions. They aren't simply some social-media beauty trend. Read more from the FDA.
And what another woman chooses to do with her body is quite frankly her business.
If she wants to lose weight, she can.
If she wants to take medication under the care of her healthcare provider, she can.
If she loses 20 pounds, 50 pounds or 150 pounds, she doesn't owe the plus-size community an apology.
Because body autonomy has to work both ways.
We cannot spend years telling women, “Nobody gets to tell you what to do with your body,” and suddenly add an asterisk when she decides she wants to change it.
But there's another conversation happening underneath all of this.
We fought to be seen
People sometimes forget what the plus-size and body-positive movements gave women.
It wasn't simply bigger clothes.
It was visibility.
For years, larger women were told what we couldn't wear.
Don't wear a bikini.
Cover your stomach.
Black is slimming.
Don't wear prints.
Don't wear horizontal stripes.
Don't show too much skin.
Essentially, fashion handed us a list of rules designed to make our bodies disappear.
Then something shifted.
Plus-size models walked runways. Influencers built communities. Women posted bikini pictures without apologizing for their stomachs. Designers created clothes that celebrated curves instead of hiding them.
And somewhere along the way, women who had spent their entire lives trying to become smaller started saying:
Maybe I don't have to hate myself while I'm living in this body.
That mattered.
It still matters.
Now the conversation is changing
What's happening isn't just something I've noticed scrolling through social media.
Researchers are noticing the tension too.
A 2025 academic study examining body-positive creators found that weight-loss narratives, including conversations around GLP-1 medications, were increasingly appearing inside spaces that had traditionally focused on body acceptance. Researchers described creators attempting to reconcile intentional weight loss with body positivity rather than treating the two ideas as completely incompatible. Read the research.
That's fascinating because it tells me we're not necessarily watching the death of body positivity.
We may be watching it change.
But change can still hurt.
Especially when someone who represented your body suddenly talks about her former body as though it were a prison she escaped.
Your former body doesn't have to become the villain
This might be the biggest thing I want to say.
Your former body should not have to become the villain in the story of your new body.
You can celebrate losing weight without humiliating the woman you used to be.
You can say:
“I feel healthier.”
“My knees don't hurt anymore.”
“My blood sugar improved.”
“I have more energy.”
“I feel better in my body.”
Those are your experiences.
But there's a difference between saying “I feel better now” and suggesting “there was something inherently wrong with being her.”
Because somebody following you is still her.
Somebody watching your transformation wears the size you used to wear.
And she may have spent years learning that her body wasn't something she needed to apologize for.
We have to be careful not to rebuild the same cage we spent decades trying to escape.
And fashion is already paying attention
This is where the conversation becomes especially personal for me.
I'm a designer.
I've designed swimwear for curvy and plus-size women for years. I've watched the fashion industry discover the plus-size customer, celebrate her, market to her, and occasionally abandon her when the trend changed.
And now there are signs that extended sizing is shrinking again.
Recent retail analysis has documented reductions in extended-size assortments at multiple major fashion retailers. EDITED reported significant shifts toward smaller and mid-range sizing at several brands, although other retailers are moving in the opposite direction and expanding extended sizes. Read the EDITED analysis.
Other reporting has documented reductions in plus-size offerings at retailers including H&M and Mango during 2026. Read the reporting.
That concerns me much more than somebody taking a GLP-1.
Because bodies aren't inventory trends.
Plus-size women didn't disappear because GLP-1 medications became popular.
And a woman shouldn't walk into a store today and have fewer options because an industry executive assumes she'll eventually become smaller.
Fashion inclusion cannot mean:
We celebrate your body until the market decides another body is trending.
That's not inclusion.
That's marketing.
Is losing weight anti-body-positive?
I don't believe it has to be.
And this is where some people might disagree with me.
You can love yourself and want to lose weight.
You can love yourself and want to gain muscle.
You can love yourself and want to change your hair, your wardrobe, your lifestyle or your body.
Self-love does not require remaining physically identical forever.
The question is why your transformation requires you to hate who you were before.
That's the part worth examining.
If body positivity means anything, it should mean that your worth isn't determined by the number sewn into your swimsuit.
Not at 3XL.
Not at XL.
Not at medium.
Not at size 6.
Maybe the real threat isn't GLP-1s
Maybe we've been asking the wrong question.
Maybe GLP-1s aren't destroying the plus-size community.
Maybe the danger is society using GLP-1s as permission to resurrect an old idea:
Thin is good. Fat is bad.
We already lived through that era.
I don't want another generation of women standing in dressing rooms believing happiness begins three sizes from now.
Health deserves nuanced conversations.
Weight deserves nuanced conversations.
Medication deserves conversations between patients and qualified healthcare professionals.
But confidence belongs to everybody.
And it shouldn't require a prescription.
So where does the plus-size community go from here?
Forward.
But perhaps with a broader definition of what community means.
Maybe the future isn't about requiring everyone in the community to remain plus-size forever.
Maybe it's about protecting something bigger:
The right to exist confidently in the body you're living in today.
Take the GLP-1.
Don't take the GLP-1.
Lose 100 pounds.
Stay exactly where you are.
Work out.
Don't make weight loss your goal.
Change your goals.
Change your mind.
Your body belongs to you.
But please don't tell the woman who looks exactly like the old you that she needs to hate herself before she's allowed to become the new you.
Confidence was never supposed to have a size requirement.
When I created Nina Sharae, I didn't create this brand because women needed permission to lose weight.
I created it because women deserved beautiful swimwear while living in the bodies they have right now.
That woman deserves the bikini.
That woman deserves the vacation.
That woman deserves the picture.
That woman deserves fashion.
That woman deserves confidence.
Whether she's beginning a weight-loss journey, ending one, taking a GLP-1, never taking one, or simply deciding she's done allowing a scale to dictate how much of her life she gets to enjoy.
Put the bikini on.
Because confidence isn't a size.
Confidence is a lifestyle. 💕
This article is cultural commentary and is not medical advice. Decisions about prescription medications should be made with an appropriate healthcare professional.