The body-positivity movement got a bump this week with Playboy featuring its first-ever plus-sized cover model: Hayley Hasselhoff, the daughter of former “Baywatch” star David Hasselhoff.
Speaking with the Daily Mail, the 28-year-old Hasselhoff said that she felt “empowered” to pose nude for Playboy Germany, a first since becoming a curve model at the age of 14.
“My dad is very supportive in the choices I make for my own career. My mum and my dad are always very supportive in everything that I have done,” she said. “You have to remember I’ve been in this industry since I was 14 and I’ve been a curve model since I was 14.”
“We all have different journeys in the curve industry, but for me I started out as a curve model and I am still a curve model today,” she continued. “To see the progression of where I’ve gone, to where I am today, I think they’re both very, very supportive and they believe in me and all the choices I make in my own career, just like I do for them.”
The photos for the cover shoot were shot during the pandemic in Paris using the model’s own lingerie. She hopes her presence on the cover will further contribute to the movement that allows people to embrace all different types of body sizes.
“There are a few photos that are tastefully nude where I’m topless,” she said. “At the beginning there were pieces of me like ‘oh Playboy…’ and then I had a think and I was like ‘oh cool!’ I get to make this movement for curve women during a global pandemic and let them know they have every right to celebrate their bodies. Looking at those images I have to say there were definitely moments on set where I was apprehensive because it was my first time ever shooting something like this.”
“It was one of those moments where you have a thought bubble and that apprehensiveness – but then that positive thought came back in and said ‘hold on a second that’s the whole reason you’re here today,'” she added.
Earlier this month, actress Lena Dunham launched her own line of plus-sized clothing and lamented her issues with the current body-positive movement, taking issue with words like “plus” or “curvy.”
“The thing that’s complicated about the body positive movement, is it can be for the privileged few who have a body that looks the way people want to feel positive,” she said. “We want curvy bodies that look like Kim Kardashian has been up-sized slightly. We want big beautiful butts and big beautiful breasts and no cellulite and faces that look like you could smack them on to thin women.”
“I have a big stomach, I always have. That’s where I gain my weight — especially after early menopause, I have a straight-up gut, like an old man — and that’s not where anybody wants to see flesh. It’s not like if I posted a sensual nude of myself on Instagram, people would be marveling at my beautiful derrière,” she added.
Related: Lena Dunham Launches Plus-Size Clothing Line, Discusses Issues With Body Positive Movement