DIARY directory recently caught up with award-winning plus-size style, beauty and lifestyle blogger Stephanie Yeboah. Stephanie recently won Blogger of the Year 2019 at The Blogosphere Awards for her blog nerdabouttown.com. Stephanie is also a freelance writer, public speaker, body confidence advocate, and the author of the body positivity e-guide SPUNK. She has worked with brands including ASOS, River Island and Match.com, to name a few.

"The core things I'd want my readers to take away from my content is the importance of individuality and living unapologetically in a world that wants us to conform to societies' standards."

You’ve recently taken the leap to go freelance – what inspired this move?

It was a mixture of two things really. The first thing being that I had recently been made redundant at work and thought that it may have been a sign to begin working for myself. I absolutely love what I do and have always wanted to work for myself and be free to create content and talk about issues that matter to me the most. So being made redundant at the time seemed like the perfect opportunity to take the leap!

As a body positive influencer, how do you feel that this movement has changed over the last few years? What are the core things that you want your readers to take from your content?

I don't consider myself a body positive influencer, as the body positivity movement does not represent bodies that look like mine anymore. The movement was spearheaded by visibly plus size women of colour and since becoming mainstream, the movement has become rather whitewashed and instead chooses to uplift bodies that are still acceptable within the public. Since this move, I align myself more towards the radical fat acceptance movement. The core things I'd want my readers to take away from my content is the importance of individuality and living unapologetically in a world that wants us to conform to societies' standards.

One of your posts discusses the lack of inclusivity within brands and their ‘shunning of plus size bodies’ - is there anything you wish you could tell brands directly?

Yes! Please start being more diverse with who you choose to work with on campaigns and press trips because the world is bigger than slim, white women. There is an incredibly diverse demographic of people who follow influencers, and if they keep using the same type and weight of influencer they are complicit in upholding not only a certain body type as its main preference but also maintaining the ideology that only white women have the money to shop or travel. Black women globally spend the most on makeup, yet we are grossly under-represented in beauty campaigns.

It's important that plus size bodies are also represented when it comes to using influencers. The average clothing size in the UK is a 16 and this should also be reflected in the industry. Plus size influencers can also give a completely different perspective and insight into everyday experiences, due to how we look.

What kind of collaborations would you love to see more in the industry?

For beauty brands to collaborate more with black influencers as we spend the most on hair care and makeup globally. I'd also like to see travel brands collaborating more with plus size and disabled influencers. 

You’ve written for publications such as GQ, ELLE, Stylist, Who What Wear and Metro - Following the controversy surrounding bloggers and influencers being compared to journalists and magazines, what do you think the future will be, how do you think the industry will evolve?

We've already seen a collapse in people reading publications, resulting in the closing down of a lot of magazines that I grew up with as a teenager. I think the difference is that people prefer to read and engage with organic content, as opposed to content that brands have paid publications to put in a good light. I think at some point there will be a merging somewhere, as influences are slowly moving back to creating long-form written content on blogs as opposed to just uploading photos on Instagram. A lot of influencers are now going off to create content offline, such as radio shows, TV shows and written content, which I think is brilliant.

What creative projects do you have in the pipeline at the moment, and what can we expect to see from you in the future?

I've just released an e-guide and workbook called SPUNK, which provides my personal tips on achieving confidence and building your self-esteem. It talks about everything from imposter syndrome and mental health to sex and lingerie options. I'm also hoping to start writing a non-fiction book soon!

Stephanie Yeboah is one of over 1800 listed blogs & vlogs that PRs could work with. Subscribers can sort blogs according to social media following across Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook, and filter by country and UK region.

Stephanie is also included in DIARY directory's industryINFLUENCERS section - where additional engagement metrics are available. 

See our previous DIARY Influencers here!