Is it ever acceptable to have flab? This question haunts Alex Light, a 38-year-old influencer, best-selling author, and a pioneering figure in the body positivity movement, as she observes a world where thinness is making a powerful comeback.
The Rise and Fall of Body Positivity
The arrival of GLP-1 fat jabs has effectively ended the campaign that Light and others championed from around 2019 to 2022. During that brief period, model Tess Holliday, a proud size 26, graced the cover of Cosmopolitan magazine. In 2020, over 86 plus-size models walked the runways during major fashion weeks—a small fraction but a sign of progress. Pop star Lizzo, at 22 stone, became the movement's poster girl, while Light shared empowering content debunking the myth that happiness comes with thinness. This message was lucrative, earning Light tens of thousands of pounds in sponsorship deals and even her own swimwear line.
In summer 2022, Light published her bestselling book You Are Not A Before Picture and bravely removed all filters from her Instagram feed, exposing how filters and camera angles deceive viewers. This bold move won her hundreds of thousands more followers.
The GLP-1 Revolution
But in late 2022, GLP-1 drugs emerged. Today, on catwalks across New York, London, Milan, and Paris, only 0.4% of looks are UK size 18 and above, down from nearly eight times that in 2022. Midsizers (UK size 10-16) account for just 2.4% of runway models, meaning 97% are a skeletal UK size 4 to 8. Celebrities like the Kardashians, Mindy Kaling, and Demi Moore are shrinking, and even Lizzo has admitted to using the jabs.
Light is not a fan. 'Putting aside the controversies and side effects,' she says, 'the true danger I see in GLP-1s is that they have moralised beauty and made being thin feel compulsory. There is no longer just an aspiration to be thin, but an expectation. By 2032, when GLP-1s become a cheap pill, the pressure will be on for every woman to carry them in her handbag.'
A Dystopian Vision
Light envisions a future where not being thin is the exception, likening it to Brave New World. Fatness will be seen as a moral failing. Yet she is more determined than ever to champion body diversity. Her new book, The Price of Pretty, is both a cautionary tale and a call to arms for her 1.3 million TikTok followers and 658,000 Instagram followers.
The author, a size 18 herself, recognises a kindred spirit in Light. She recalls the excitement of trying on Victoria Beckham's 'plus size' capsule range in 2022, only to find it was tokenistic. Meeting Light at her home in Sevenoaks, Kent, she finds a woman who has struggled with body image but refuses to give up.
Light's Personal Journey
Light grew up in the Wirral as the eldest of five sisters, in a family that divided the world into 'plump imperfect' and 'thin perfect'. By age nine, she was on her first diet. An eating disorder was inevitable, exacerbated by working for glossy magazines. She lost most of her twenties to anorexia and bulimia. 'Anorexia became my control,' she says. 'I was in therapy for 15 years, which saved me.'
From 2020 to 2022, she saw real change: non-thin women accepted by the mainstream. 'It felt like we were finally exhaling,' she recalls. 'And then, just like that, it was over.'
The Price of Pretty
Light's book details how Big Pharma and Big Tech have conspired to damage women's body image. AI filters present body and facial perfection as reality, pushing Botox and tweakments. 'Thinness and perfection are now the only topics on the table,' she says. 'Brands no longer care about body or age diversity.'
She warns that thin women are promoted at work, while others are seen as lazy. 'We don't yet know the long-term effects of weight loss drugs,' she adds, 'but there's a multi-billion dollar industry invested in keeping women using them.'
One in two girls hate their body by age 13, and eating disorder admissions are soaring. Light questions why women perpetuate these trends, with #SkinnyTok reels and female influencers promoting unhealthy body sizes. 'Those women are participating in a system they didn't build,' she says. 'The patriarchy is outsourcing the haters.'
Light's husband Dave has never cared about her body shape. She laughs, clearly not married to a man who wants a Tradwife. 'I went to hell and back in my first 30 years,' she says. 'The first time I knew peace was when I escaped the cage of body dissatisfaction. How we look is the least interesting thing about us.'
As the author leaves, Light packs up untouched lemon biscuits. On the train back to London, she tucks into them, noticing she is the only woman eating. The Price of Pretty by Alex Light is published by HQ and is available now.
