MiB: How long have you been modeling and how did you get your start?
TJ: I have been modeling since 1997 I believe, and I’ve been modeling for
MiB just about as long! I remember seeing a segment somewhere on TV about plus modeling when I was maybe 17 and that sparked my interest because it had been a dream of mine. I have always been a big girl so I knew that I wasn’t able to model in the straight size market. Many years later, when I became more confident with myself and my body, I began to look on the internet for information. I found a Plus Size modeling forum that was full of information and support. I had my boyfriend take some pictures of me and then we sent them around to different agencies and plus size clothing companies. Fortunately I found Making it Big and they were one of the first places to hire me. They gave me a chance when I had zero modeling experience and it has been a wonderful experience ever since!
MiB: You’ve been modeling for a long time, what’s your motivation?
TJ: I think I originally got into it just for the “fun and glamour”, but eventually I realized the importance of what plus models do on a socially conscious level. In this society where girls/women are brainwashed to think that “Anorexia is Beautiful” and our image of what the average, life sized woman looks like is completely distorted, it becomes incredibly important to show beautiful, real sized women. This is one of the reasons why I appreciate
MiB so much. Their insistence on using larger models shows their commitment to this message and it underscores the fact that they have respect for their customers. I mean really, I find it offensive that many plus size clothing companies are afraid to use plus sized women to model their clothes…isn’t that kind of a slap in the face when you think about it?
MiB: What has been your proudest moment as a model?
TJ: You know, I have been in a movie, on TV; I’ve been in a few magazines and on many websites but my PROUDEST moment happened in 2002 when I was the Staff Advisor for a group of young women that had formed a club on Humboldt State University’s college campus. The group was having a conversation about their struggles with body image and I got the idea to help them put on a Plus Sized fashion show…it was called “PHat and PHabulous”!! We created a documentary on the making of the fashion show which included clips from our discussions about size and body image and we showed it before the actual show. Our fashion lineup included everything from sports wear to formal wear—even lingerie! It was so wonderful because when we started our rehearsals about 6 weeks prior to the event, so many of the young women were self conscious about everything from the way they walked to the way their bodies moved, but by the time the show ran they were WORKING that runway! The transformation was AMAZING! They all looked so confident and beautiful and I just thought to myself “YES! This is what it is all about!”.
MiB: Outside of modeling, what do you do?
TJ: Well for fun I have a couple of favorite activities. I really like to play tennis although I wish I played more often. It’s the only physical activity that I really get into. It’s so funny because I do NOT like to run but I’ll run a ball down on the tennis courts in a second! I guess I’m kind of competitive! I also like to shoot pool and was in a women’s pool league in my neighborhood…I ended up winning my very first trophy as “Top Team Shooter”! It was awesome!
As for my career, I am so excited because I have found the program that I am ready to dedicate my life to! A few years ago I was feeling kind of stagnant and really wanting to put my energy towards something meaningful. At the time I was struggling trying to model full time and working in a women’s fitness club. I started looking around for youth development programs because that had always been my passion and it was what fulfilled me. I came across The “I Have a Dream” Foundation which is a national nonprofit that helps low-income youth from underserved communities reach their educational and career goals. They were looking for a College Coordinator to help their class of Dreamers through the application process. Once I read about the program model and all that they were doing for these kids I was hooked!
MiB: Wow, this sounds like a great project, tell us more!
TJ: Well, like I said, The “I Have a Dream” Foundation is a national nonprofit that has a 25 year history of helping kids from low income areas reach their educational and career goals. The basic model is that a cohort of kids, usually the same age group from a school or housing project is “adopted” into the program early on, most in or around 3rd grade. The kids are then followed for the next 10-12 years and provided support through in class aid, after school tutoring, mentoring, academic advising and parent support workshops. We also provide social and cultural enrichment activities AND once the kids graduate from high school and are accepted into an accredited academic program, we provide tuition assistance to help finance their education. The beauty of this program is the long term commitment that is made to these kids. The project that I originally got involved with in West Oakland adopted their Dreamers in 1997 as third graders. They ended up with a Dreamer graduation rate of 74%, in 2006, compared to Oakland’s average of 48%! Of those kids that graduated or received their GED, 72% went on to further their education. That is PHENOMENAL!
After being a part of the West Oakland project I decided to adopt my own class of Dreamers! We have targeted a group of 2nd and 3rd grade youth living in two neighboring housing projects in East Oakland. The area that we are adopting from has had some real problems with drugs and gang violence, however we are seeing movement in the community towards making it a better place for kids to live and grow and we think that we can help with that process. We are still in the fundraising stages but so far we have received lots of support from the community. The management company of one of the housing projects, EBALDC, has donated free office and programming space! We have also just recently formed a partnership with the Boys and Girls Club of Oakland who has promised our Dreamers free memberships to any of their clubs in Oakland until they are 19. We are incredibly excited and are hoping to collaborate with CSU East Bay and UC Berkeley to provide tutors and mentors for our Dreamers. We would like to find more ways to collaborate in order to provide our Dreamers with the most comprehensive and high quality services possible.
MiB: That’s great! This sounds like a very worthwhile cause. How can our
MiB customers find out more information and get involved?
TJ: We are trying to kick the project off in Summer 2008 but that is dependent on if we raise the $500,000 we need to help ensure we can fulfill our promise to our Dreamers. This will cover the first 2 years of our operating and programming costs PLUS give us seed money to invest towards our Dreamer Scholarship funds. So our most critical need is in the area of funding. Once we kick off however, we will need people to help us in a variety of ways- there will be a need for tutors, mentors, volunteers to chaperone field trips, volunteers to work with the Dreamers in their classrooms and even people who have a talent to teach to the kids are welcomed to talk to us about doing a series of workshops. We are open!
To find out more information on the project and/or to make a tax deductible donation you can go to our website at: http://www.ihad-eastoakland.org
MiB: Great, is there anything else you’d like to add?
TJ: Yes. Many of our Dreamers are the first in their families to graduate high school and nearly all are the first to go to college- combine this with the fact that our prisons are filled with people who never earned a high school diploma, and we spend millions on prisons and the penal system each year. We, as a society, have to decide where we want to put our money and resources…at the front end where we can be proactive and help a child become a successful, healthy individual or on the back end when that same child is lost and has given up hope and therefore, much harder to rehabilitate.
MiB: Thank you, Tesia for this interview. I’m sure our customers have enjoyed getting to know a little more about you since you’ve been a familiar face for so many years!
TJ: I thank you for the opportunity to show such beautiful clothes and for the venue to share a bit about my program.
