Here’s What The Real Barbie Thinks About That Barbie

Last week, Mattel and Barbie made headlines after revealing that the original slim-hipped doll would be joined by a few other body types: petite, tall, and curvy. Oddly enough, it wasn’t the first time the name “Barbie” had slipped from our lips recently either: Aerie grabbed attention in January for its smoking-hot spring ’16 campaign starring stunning 19-year-old Barbie Ferreira. Coincidence?

Well, yeah, but still. Both are powerful statements about the need to acknowledge and celebrate a wide range of female body types, and the double-dose of unique first names was too much to ignore. When we got Ferreira on the phone, our opening question went straight to the pop culture icon.

“Not everyone relates to being a blond girl with blue eyes and is proportioned so she could barely walk if she was a real person,” she explained with a matter-of-fact attitude that typically comes with the self-confidence most of us earn only when we’re firmly entrenched in our 30s. “I think it makes girls feel more accepted, and that they’re beautiful, too.” When it comes to some of the negativity that the release saw (we were privy to some of it on our own Instagram account), she chalked it up to people being afraid of change. “She’s been a traditional icon for so many decades that even a small step opens it up for even more progress. Once it’s successful [in stores], I think they’ll come out with even more varieties.”

Before the Aerie campaign, the glossy interviews, and signing with Wilhelmina, Ferreira was just a good-looking girl sharing her life on Instagram. And while that’s relatable enough, most of us can’t fathom the journey that social media fueled for her.

“Social media opened up basically every opportunity for me because, traditionally, I wouldn’t be thought of as a model. Since people organically started following and relating to me, I proved [to brands] that yes, I can be a model even though I might not traditionally be what you guys think is marketable,” she said. Her impressive presence—currently clocking at 270,000 followers—helped her land some of her early gigs (including posing for American Apparel and New York City-based artists), but when it came to signing with Wilhelmina, it wasn’t simply a case of a major agency inking a deal with an Insta-model. Rather, she went with the standard approach of sending her assembled book of past photo shoots. They must have liked what they saw, impressed that the teen had enough gumption to make a lot of stuff happen for herself even without an agent.

MORE: Why 2015 Was the Most Important Year Ever for Plus-Size Fashion

As her platform’s grown, she’s been called a “body-positive activist”, a 21st-century term that’s been described as someone working to “overcome conflicts with their bodies so they can lead happier, more productive lives.” Neat definition aside, the movement was first brought to her attention via Tumblr.

“I’ve always struggled a ton with my body image, and I wanted to help other people not feel so ashamed about themselves. It’s a completely unnecessary part of everyday life,” she told us. “Seeing amazing young women [on Tumblr] who are fearless and don’t care if society tells them they’re not beautiful enough—they’re still showing their imperfections and embracing themselves. That gave me the confidence to be in pictures, something that was out of my comfort zone.”

Following the beauty on Instagram, or chatting with her on the phone, leaves you thinking that this is a girl who knows she rocks. But even she admits to still battling down days. She’s learned tactics to deal with it and believes that a good defense is the best offense, cutting out gossip magazines, critique-heavy TV shows, and acquaintances who made shady comments about her body. Plus, her own social feeds went through a nice purge at some point.

“I don’t follow anyone who I think is trying to sell the dream that everything is perfect. It’s not, it’s [based on] comparing, and I don’t like it. There’s so much that subconsciously affects you, and you don’t even realize it.”

Ferreira posing for Aerie

Of the future of modeling and the fashion industry, Ferreira is infectiously optimistic. She sees beauty ideals being challenged every day and cheers for the way that social media is exposing people to different walks of life they never could have glimpsed a decade ago. The term “plus-size” doesn’t specifically bother her, though she’s firm in her opinion that something it represents needs to change: “The problem is labeling—we’re all just models. What the body-positive movement wants is to stop categorizing people, and to let people of all body types be able to do anything, whether they’re slightly bigger than the average model or a lot bigger,” she said, casually referencing the way the industry terms a size six as “plus,” ignoring the fact that the average size of American women hovers between ages 12 and 14.

“‘Plus-size model’ puts me into a box. It gives me the traditional plus-size jobs, which are amazing, but it’s time to open up the doors so that people of all body types are able to be in all lanes of modeling, not just one niche. The body-positive thing has been happening for a long time, but it hasn’t been shown to everyone. It hasn’t been given a light.”

If anyone can do it, it’s Barbie (the model).

Watch young girls see the new Barbie dolls for the first time.