I Went to Curvy Con!!!

Excuse me, THE Curvy Con! That is a well-deserved “THE” because it was a FABULOUS event. Fabulous, magical, emotional…the adjectives could go on and on.

For me, it was like seeing my Instagram feed come to life! So many of the women I admire in the plus-size community IN THE SAME ROOM AS ME! I, of course, got awkward fan-girl awe-struck and spoke to NONE OF THEM (kicking self) and took hardly any pictures. But it was awesome people watching. The ladies were gorgeous, the clothes were AMAZING….the energy and emotion and sense of community were all right there. It was all good.

Ashley Nell Tipton, Valerie Sagun and Jes Baker

For those of you who don’t know, TheCurvyCon is like ComicCon, but for fat girls! It’s a coming together of some of the best from social media, entertainment, design and retail. And fans of theirs. There were pop-up shops of plus-size clothing from mostly online retailers…and main sponsor JC Penney had a t-shirt give-away with tables and supplies for bedazzling, deconstructing, whatever your heart desired…they had a photo booth…and you could meet&greet Ashley Nell Tipton, winner of the most recent Project Runway.

There were panel discussions on things like “So You Want to Be a Blogger,” and “Talk to Plus Size Clothing Retailers,” and talks on body positivity and more. The speakers were all inspirational and motivational and most of them made me cry.

JC Penney t-shirt give-away

Seeing and hearing All The Things roused stuff up inside of me. Being around all these beautiful women made me acutely aware that even among my plus-size peers, I am still a schlub! And I’m not saying that in an “oh poor me” way – not at all. But sort of…being honest about it for maybe the first time. I could get up an hour earlier every day and do my hair and makeup and look better every day, but really…really really…that’s not as important to me as getting another hour of sleep or being comfortable during a long day. I had a hard time when naming this blog, the “from frumpy to fabulous” part, because really…deep down I know that “fabulous” is just not in my DNA. But better. I could be better.

So I’ll just keep working on being better. And events like CurvyCon will help keep pushing me along. I’m already looking forward to next year’s. Maybe I’ll actually talk to people 🙂

And my hat REALLY goes off to the two women who put this event together the past two years, CeCe Olisa The Plus Size Princess and Chastity Garner Valentine of Garner Style, and I’m sure many invisible helper fairies…not to mention sponsors…but the event was impeccable. Everything ran on time, there was enough of everything, there were chairs for everyone, everyone was sparkly and cheerful and helpful. I can’t say enough good things about it. I probably *will* over the next few days, as things come to me.

CeCe Olisa & Chastity Garner Valentine

If you are plus sized and need a little I AM GOOD ENOUGH JUST THE WAY I AM kick in the booty, this is just the place to go.

Here’s an InStyle article about the event http://www.instyle.com/news/curvy-con-2016