The Australian model, who was just announced as one of the four faces of Melbourne Fashion Week, first took a stand against the sizeist term when she started the viral hashtag #DropThePlus last year.
The 24-year-old posed topless with the words “I am a model” scrawled across her stomach in a bid to highlight how damaging the prefix “plus” can be to women and young girls.
Since then Stefania has become a crusader for body positivity and diversity in fashion while amping up her battle to banish “damaging” labels.
Speaking yesterday, she said: “When we talk about size we shouldn’t be using terms such as plus-size especially because in the fashion industry any model above a size 8 is labelled plus-size… and that’s misleading because the average woman is size 12 to 14.
“It’s damaging the minds of young girls… they should be able to see models they can relate to.
“People need to be able to relate to the models they are seeing on the runway… so they can imagine what the clothes look like on [them].”
But it’s not just body diversity that the platinum-haired beauty is pushing for.
She also wants to see men and women of all ages storm catwalks across the world.
She told the Sydney Morning Herald: “Age is very important.
“When I get older I want to see models who are my age.
“There are so many brands that are unfortunately using models in their teens when their target market is women in their 30s or 40s.
“It’s almost criminal to be doing that.”
After struggling with her own body image for years, the 5ft 7ins catwalk queen decided to embrace her curves and hasn’t looked back since.
But when she first started out in the modelling industry – weighing 8st 9lbs (55kg) at the age of 16 – she was told by agents to slim down.
She said: “For my height I would have been well underweight if I had done that.
“And I was turned down by a lot of agencies.”
