When Huffine first started, she was just a teenager. She was size 6, but struggled to get signed to an agency, The Washington Post has reported.
http://instagram.com/p/BDiioSeEUEF/embed/
Width: 658px
One agency signed her a plus size model.
Source: Washington Post
A lot of agencies told her to lose weight — even though she was a teenager.
http://instagram.com/p/4Uz5MXkUKW/embed/
Width: 658px
"But try telling that to a 14-year-old. A few places wanted me to lose weight, and I was like, "Oh, okay, maybe that’s common?" I was a size six, so I thought I was hot stuff. I was a freshman in high school, tight little body, thinking, I’m going to be a model. And then when someone is like, "I need you to lose fifteen pounds." I [was] like, "How do you do that?!" And then when I finally was handed a contract, the stipulation was that [they’re] signing me under [their] plus board, and I never looked back," she said to The Cut.
"I don’t want to make it sound like the slim girls live a terrible life. They don't. For me, personally, if my body wasn’t meant to be that way and I had to struggle with that for many years, I would be a wreck," she said to The Cut.
Even when she was a size 10, most of the work she got was in Europe.
http://instagram.com/p/BBfqHIHEUH1/embed/
Width: 658px
"The plus industry then was quite new and the American market desired a more mature woman who was around a size 16. I was a kid who was a 10," she said to The Washington Post.
Huffine got her first big break with a 2000 Lane Bryant shoot.
http://instagram.com/p/BDN-VVREUNM/embed/
Width: 658px
And in 2011, she appeared in Vogue Italia — and her career really started taking off.
Source: Washington Post
That will go down in history for me as a really major moment in my life,” she said to The Washington Post. “People were looking at me in a different way. Curvy girls didn’t have the opportunity to do editorial work that much. We were catalogue girls, online, e-commerce. You didn’t really see us in an edgy, high-fashion way. That really changed the game.
http://instagram.com/p/BCVW54sEUNi/embed/
Width: 658px
And three years later, she was featured in American Vogue.
Source: Washington Post
She was also featured in its #PlusIsEqual campaign.
http://instagram.com/p/8LfRa-kUKG/embed/
Width: 658px
She's modeled for the Pirelli calendar.
http://instagram.com/p/wxyAMikULO/embed/
Width: 658px
She's appeared in many editorials.
http://instagram.com/p/7N4HBQkUE8/embed/
Width: 658px
And she's modeled for many companies, including Rachel Roy Curve.
http://instagram.com/p/BBQU9oykUB4/embed/
Width: 658px
Huffine is size 12, but she has said that it's not the size number that matters.
http://instagram.com/p/-AMpnnEULS/embed/
Width: 658px
"Maybe this new era really is more than ever about being and loving yourself?" She said to The Washington Post. "If that is the generation we are in, that is an awesome one to be a part of because everyone fits in it.”
She takes care of herself — she works out. And she's out to dispel the myth that curvy girls aren't healthy.
http://instagram.com/p/BBfdMFrEUDi/embed/
Width: 658px
"I have to work extremely hard to keep it, but I think it’s mainly a feeling: If you feel like you are a little puffy or maybe you have a few extra pounds on, of course you’re going to make changes to do so. But there’s no real pressure to hit the gym every day," she said to The Cut in 2012. "Also, I say this all the time, but the plus girls in this industry are some of the healthiest people I’ve ever met in my life. It’s not like we’re having parties at McDonald’s. The girls I know, they’re all doing yoga, run three miles a day, and they eat healthy, balanced meals."
Signing with IMG is her latest big break.
http://instagram.com/p/4men__EUDH/embed/
Width: 658px
"You can tell by their diverse roster of talent and their board that they have the same vision that I do, and that's something that I was always drawn to, so it's just a perfect fit," she said to Fashionista.
She feels like she can achieve anything now.
http://instagram.com/p/BB52uWuEUFE/embed/
Width: 658px
"I do think, now more than ever, the sky's the limit for sure. I think that there's a really great opportunity to push the envelope and break through on a more mainstream level, and to encourage and inspire brands to advertise or represent different sizes, or even to extend the sizes of their current collections," she said to Fashionista. "There's constant work — and a voice, and a message — in showing that curvy women are chic and fashionable, and to represent that across the board in all media."
