098: Ameni Esseibi: The First Curvy Model of the Arab World on Breaking Beauty Standards in Fashion

<p>Ameni Esseibi is someone who has spent years challenging the fashion industry to make room for her — and won. She is the first plus-size Arab model, a body positivity advocate, a Jean Paul Gaultier ambassador, a Paris Fashion Week runway veteran, and a woman who has built an entire career on the radical act of showing up exactly as she is.</p><p></p><p>Born in Tunisia, raised in Dubai, and educated in the French school system, Ameni started her modelling journey at just eighteen years old. But her road to success was anything but easy. She approached agency after agency in Dubai and was told there was no market for her. That the region wasn't ready. But she ignored the naysayers. Dismissing their ignorance and persevered.</p><p></p><p>Today, she has graced the pages of Vogue, Elle, Harper's Bazaar, and Cosmopolitan. She has walked couture catwalks in Paris. Become a global ambassador for Dubai Fashion Week and the Arab Fashion Council. And along the way has become the voice that an entire generation of Arab women had been waiting for — curvy, confident, and proud of her heritage.</p><p></p><p>What makes Ameni truly remarkable is not just what she has achieved, but why she set out to achieve it. From the very beginning, becoming a model was never about the pursuit of fame. It was about the young Arab woman who didn't see herself anywhere — not on the runway, not in the magazines, not on the billboards. When Ameni couldn’t find a role model, she decided to become the person she was looking for. The woman others could look to, and understand that they were enough – just as they are.</p><p></p><p>In our interview, we discuss what representation really means in the modeling space, why the word plus-size should be banned, and how her love of horseback riding has given Ameni a sense of inner peace she didn’t know she was searching for.</p><p></p><p>–🎬 Thank you to Studio Wacked in Paris for the support of my French-based podcast episodes https://wacked.fr/ and Poddster https://dubai.poddster.com/ and Procast https://procast.ae/ n Dubai for their amazing studio and team where these episode are recorded:</p><p>💌<strong>Drop me a DM:</strong> @jessicamichault or just old school email me.📝 My website: https://jessicamichault.com/</p><p><strong>Connect with Us:</strong></p><p>✅Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/jessicamichault/</p><p>✅Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jessicamichault/</p><p><strong>You might also like:</strong></p><p>💟https://www.youtube.co