Project Runway Winner Ashley Nell Tipton Promotes Body Positivity in JC Penney Campaign

JC Penney is showing that size isn’t a measure of a person’s worth in its new ad campaign, Here I Am.

The department store features accomplished women like fashion blogger GabiFresh, designer Ashley Nell Tipton and other body activists in a commercial promoting body positivity.

“In high school I was one of those girls who said, ‘I would be so much prettier if I was thin,’ ” says GabiFresh in a video for the campaign. “If I could just reach that one last level my life would be perfect.”

But she has since realized size is not important.

“The only person who should be defining me is me,” she says. “Even if I lost 100 lbs. tomorrow I would still be the person I am now. I would still be GabiFresh.”

Tipton, the first designer to win Project Runway with a plus-size line, says her size made life difficult growing up.

“I was a target for people to make fun of, or bash,” she says. “I didn’t know what was wrong with me, like, ‘Why was I so different?’ ”

These days, Tipton is changing the fashion industry with her designs. Her line with JC Penney hit stores in May.

“We’re not shy, we’re not trying to hide,” she says. “I am beautiful, I am sexy, I am everything.”

Author Jes Baker is also done with worrying about her body.

“We’re countering a lifetime of learned hatred,” she says of the campaign. “Fat girls can do whatever they want. I thought I couldn’t wear a bikini and I can, and I love it.”

“That’s a pretty powerful thing for me, especially when you’ve been taught your entire life that you need to shrink or hide or disappear.”

Singer Mary Lambert agrees, adding, “My size is not an indicator of my worth.”

This article originally appeared on People.com