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This American Student's Response To Body-Shaming Is Perfect

She's basically having none of it

Oklahoma State student Sherene Zarrabi used to work in a boutique store at her local shopping centre.

Anyone who’s ever worked in a clothes shop knows that at times, it can go slow. Sherene used to fill this time by showing off some of the store’s clothes on her Instagram, until her boss asked her to remove the pictures in the worst possible way.

Last week Sherene received an email from the store owner asking her to take down the photos because she’s not ‘model material’ saying, "I want size small, the stereotypical 'model' to model our clothes. Please use our pictures of our models if Stillwater store can't find someone who would be considered 'model material”. WORST.

Thankfully Sherene happens to be a badass and is fully comfortable with the way she looks, responding by promptly quitting and posting the body-shaming email on Facebook for all to see, along with an inspiring message about not putting up with discrimination.

Unsurprisingly and rightfully so, Sherene has since become something of a celebrity, with the store and its owner getting flack over their attitude. Sherene wasn’t quite done being brilliant there though and urged people not to hate on this particular store but rather the wider context of what happened, and she’s totally right.

The owner didn’t say anything specific about Sherene, just stating rather that the pics didn’t fit the build of a ‘stereotypical model’. She has since 'kind of' apologised, saying she understood how Sherene must have felt about it but blamed it on the “unsaid fashion rule”.

But Sherene’s right - this issue is way more problematic than just one store. Without people like Sherene contesting this “unsaid fashion rule” about the way a model should look (skinny, basically), the industry will continue to not represent the full range of beautiful, varied people out there. We love you, Sherene, we should all follow your example.

- Henry Boon

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