Just as Beautiful: Britain's first plus-size magazine

Just as Beautiful: Britain's first plus-size magazine

Get ready ladies: Britain will get its first curvy-girl magazine this month as Just as Beautiful, a glossy aimed at women between a size 14 and 20, launches in the UK.

The magazine dedicated to larger women will only feature models that are size 14 and over and the magazine’s editor, Sue Thomason, has promised that there will be ‘no airbrushing out bits of [the models] bodies.’

Though it will include articles about fashion, lifestyle, exercise and cooking it will be without one female-magazine staple: dieting tips.

The magazine is filling what the publishers believe to be a gap in the market for larger women who want content that embraces their body type.

Just as Beautiful began three years ago as a free, subscription-only digital publication sent by email, which had a circulation of 30,000. This month, however, it has launched as a bi-weekly magazine and will be available in select stores for £4.70.


But doesn’t a magazine that caters to only ‘one’ body type seem to continue the division and segregation of women based on their specific shapes? Though it’s fair to say most mainstream magazines are slow to feature full-figured women more prominently in their magazines, they are making strides to incorporate a variety of body shapes. And with New York Fashion Week giving full-figured women some much needed time on the catwalk, it seems that the fashion industry is, even if painfully sluggishly, attempting to unite women of various figures.

Shouldn’t there be a push to continue to include women of all shapes and sizes within the fashion industry instead of continuing to segregate and single them out, which only seems, despite good intentions, to put more emphasis on body size?

Perhaps that’s just wishful thinking.

And the title: Just as Beautiful? As if by default all larger women assume they aren’t? The name itself seems both condescending and sad – because no plus-size woman would have the confidence and self-assurance to believe she was attractive unless a magazine reminded her with a big, glossy patronising title.

And to add a little extra sting, visit their website and you’ll be greeted with James Blunt’s ‘You’re Beautiful’ serenading you in the background.

But wait; shouldn’t it be ‘You’re Just as Beautiful’?

So what do you think? Should we embrace this new plus-size only mag or is 'Just as Beautiful' a waste of glossy paper?