We often hear a lot of stories from models who go to castings only to be told that they are ‘too big’ or ‘need to lose weight.’ Luckily for us, Anna Shillinglaw didn’t let that stop her from starting her own modeling agency. Milk Model Management works with over 2560 models and some of our favorite curve brands like River Island, ASOS, New Look and Evans UK.

She recently told The Daily Mail, “When I was scouted by Storm model agency at 17, I was what the industry refers to as a ‘straight size model.’ I did lots of underwear modeling–I was even a Wonderbra girl. For the first six months of my career in the early 90s it was okay to be a size 10 or even a size 12 and have hips and boobs–but then Kate Moss hit and everyone wanted waifs. I was sent home from a few jobs with people muttering ‘she’s just too big.'”

Photo: courtesy of Tess Holliday’s Instagram.

The moment that changed everything for Anna when she moved home to the UK and realized there was no curve-friendly modeling agency for her. Like the girl boss she is, she created her own. Today Milk manages models like Robyn Lawley, Louise O’Reilly, Precious Lee, Tess Holliday and more. Her agency is one of the few that has carved out a market for models of all sizes to find a place in fashion, something that wouldn’t be possible without Anna’s body activism work.