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Pro-fat, plus-sized model says flight attendant lectured her about losing weight during trip

October 29, 2025 | | Print Article

Pro-fat activist Tess Holliday has alleged that a United Airlines flight attendant recently told her to “lose weight.”

Speaking with People magazine this week, she said that she’d been traveling first class out of Tampa when a United Airlines flight attendant suddenly criticized her.

“I was in the restroom and my hip hit the flight attendant call button,” she recalled. “When I came out of the bathroom, the flight attendant then started to tell me that they noticed I was traveling with my child, and that losing weight would be in my best interest.”

The flight attendant specifically spoke about his own sister, whom he said was “very, very large, probably [Holliday’s] size,” and whom he alleged had recently been discriminated against on a flight.

“He said that his sister needed to lose weight as well, and that the long-term effect on our bodies isn’t good for our health,” Holliday said. “This went on for about 10 minutes, and I think I was just frozen. I didn’t want to make a scene because my son was flying with me, but I was also in a state of shock.”

Holliday also shared her story on social media:

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The good news for her was that after the flight, she spoke with United Airlines, and the airline “apologized for the situation.”

“I told them that I didn’t want the flight attendant fired, and that perhaps they could do some sensitivity training,” she said, adding that she referred United to the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance.

She told People magazine that the whole interaction on the flight seemed “ironic” because she’d been flying home after speaking to hundreds of middle school and high school students about her book, “Take Up Space Ya’ll.”

“One of the topics we discussed was how to deal with people who might be bullying you about your size,” she said.

“Tess Holliday has been on a mission to shift society’s mindset on what is beautiful, what is healthy, and what matters most out of life and living authentically,” the book synopsis reads on Amazon.

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“Now she and co-author, Kelly Coon, are combating the immense pressures society places on teens–from grades to social status to looks–and acknowledging these can have a negative impact on one’s physical and mental health. Let Tess, Kelly, and various professionals guide you to taking up all the space you need,” it continues.

The woman is so crazily in love with her supersized lifestyle that she recently argued that the popularity of successful weight-loss drugs like GLP-1 has been bad for super-fat models looking for work.

“I think that, collectively, our society has moved to a place where thinness is in and body positivity and curvy is no longer popular for a lot of brands,” she lamented.

In a video posted to social media, Holliday pushed back on those who have argued that the flight attendant was just trying to look out for her health and well-being.

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“That’s not the point,” she said. “You don’t say things like that to people. He said a myriad of other things. The conversation lasted entirely too long. Thankfully, I excused myself from the conversation when another passenger came up to use the bathroom.”

Holliday is also a notorious anti-Trump loon who responded to President Donald Trump’s latest presidential election victory by labeling all of his supporters racists.

Vivek Saxena
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