In the early 2010s, as plus-size modeling gained commercial momentum, many of Britain’s largest talent agencies responded by adding a category. Charlotte Griffiths had worked inside those agencies and understood what that structure signaled: diversity was being treated as an extension of the existing system, not a reason to rebuild it.

Bridge Agency launched in London in 2014 with a different premise. The modeling agency would represent what Charlotte calls “positive, diverse and ethical role models” across print campaigns, e-commerce, television, and eventually digital content. It has since opened a New York office, launched the UK’s first men’s plus-size model division in 2016, and added a dedicated influencer and creator arm the same year.

Its roster now spans athletes, mature creators, body-positive voices, and financial literacy advocates, each chosen not for category fit but for mission alignment.

“We’ve stayed true to that mission, and it’s hard to do that and grow as a business,” Charlotte says. “But I do think it’s incredibly important, especially with the rise of AI in content. I think it’s more important now than ever.”

The Drop-Down Problem

Charlotte came to the modeling industry in her late teens, briefly as talent, before quickly moving behind the scenes as a booker and agent at what the industry calls a “straight size” agency, companies representing models in sample sizes 6 and 8. The work was not good for her mental health. Models were weighed at check-ins. Bodies that changed were a problem to manage rather than a reality to accommodate.

The shift came when a colleague introduced her to an Australian agency called Hughes Models, run by Cheryl Hughes, that had built its entire book around models of different shapes and sizes. Charlotte applied for a job. “The models were celebrated for that,” she recalls. “Some had been with Cheryl for many years. They’d had children, and their bodies had changed size. And she didn’t say, ‘You’re no longer right for me.’ She said, ‘This is something your body was meant to do.’”

When Cheryl retired, Charlotte faced a decision. She looked at what was available. Major firms were absorbing plus and curve as subcategories: dropdown menus alongside actors, dancers, and families. The structure itself communicated the problem. Separate divisions implied separate hierarchies. Separate hierarchies implied tolerance, not integration.

“I was nervous that going back into those environments, I knew they didn’t want to change,” she says. “They were just adding it because it’s trending right now. That kind of gave me the confidence to go, it worked what we were doing. So I’m going to try and do it.”

With that mission in mind, Bridge launched in 2014 as a standalone agency where diversity was the premise, not a product line.

How Brands Mistake Diversity for a Campaign

A decade later, Charlotte has watched the industry improve in some areas and stagnate in others. Her most consistent critique is what she calls the “cut and paste” approach: a quarterly campaign featuring diverse talent, wrapped in imagery that looks inclusive, while day-to-day product shots, event appearances, and e-commerce content continue to rely on the same narrow range of models.

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Credits: Bridge creator Samantha Hansard (@vintagecuratorinteriors)

“You might see it once a quarter, but you’re not seeing the same diversity being applied to regular content that’s being featured,” she says, adding that the disconnect undermines the gesture. “If you’re going online and you think you’re seeing yourself and then you go to try and shop for something and you don’t see that carried through, that can be quite disheartening.”

The gaps also shift. Charlotte notes that progress in body positivity has not been matched by representation of mature models, creators over 40, or talent from underrepresented religious backgrounds. “There’s always going to be a gap,” she says. “As we might move and get better with one area, you’ll see there’s a gap somewhere else.”

Her advice for brands attempting genuine progress is specific: don’t substitute. Bringing in models from different cultural backgrounds while applying the same styling and framing developed for a single demographic is not inclusion. “Adapt your marketing strategy as well,” she explains. “Don’t just have four or five people all together in imagery and go, fantastic, we’ve done it.”

The KPI Conversation Brands Avoid

Charlotte identifies a process failure that compounds the representational one: brands regularly brief talent agencies on what they want to produce without disclosing what they need to achieve.

KPIs, she notes, determine concept. A brand optimizing for virality requires a different hook than one focused on education or driving website traffic. Certain creators on Bridge’s roster have track records of converting sales; others are stronger at awareness and engagement. Without knowing the end goal, the agency is pitching in the dark.

“I always personally like starting from the end and working backwards,” Charlotte says. “What’s the end goal? Now I can fill in the blanks.”

The same preparation logic applies to model bookings. Charlotte argues that talent should receive as much practical detail as possible before a shoot, including expected looks, pacing, and timing, because the physical and mental demands of a commercial production are substantial. In an industry where talent can be cast and confirmed within 24 hours, that information often arrives late or not at all.

“I think it’s kind of assumed to just show up and do it,” she says. “But everybody prefers the opportunity to just prepare their energy and their time.”

When the Model Became the Message

The clearest articulation of what Bridge is building came not from a campaign brief but from a school classroom in London.

Raul Samuel, one of Bridge’s models, had been booked as the campaign face for Boohoo’s men’s big and tall range launch. The images ran on London billboards and across the tube network. Samuel, who had been working as a science teacher while building his modeling career, returned to his school to find his students had seen the ads everywhere.

Photo: Raul Samuel at the Boohoo photoshoot
Source: Bridge Talent

“Some of the boys in his class whose body shapes might have been a little bit bigger or broader were coming up to him and saying how much that meant,” Charlotte recalls. “It was a full circle story. Somebody who had trusted us had done a campaign, it was absolutely everywhere, and these little kids sort of looked up and saw that.”

The moment illustrates something data cannot measure at the time of booking: the downstream effect of casting decisions on audiences who do not fit the conventional sample size. “They’re trusting us with their image,” she says. “It’s a very vulnerable exchange.”

The Over-Polished Future

Charlotte’s concern about the industry’s direction centers on a convergence she sees accelerating: data-driven decision-making, AI-generated content, and the risk that both push campaigns toward a homogenized, frictionless perfection that no longer reflects anything real.

“I would love to see images not being overly edited or over-polished,” she says. “You can get over-polished, over-perfect content in a magazine or in a commercial and on digital platforms as well. They can both happen.”

The mental health implications are already well-documented, particularly for younger audiences. But Charlotte’s argument extends beyond the young. “It’s not just young kids that it’s affecting. It’s affecting everybody. So I think it’s about going back to seeing the beauty in the flaws.”

The structural issue she returns to most consistently is simpler: models and creators are freelancers, not employees. They are waiting 90 days on average to be paid for work already completed. They are running businesses under real financial pressure. Brand marketers with salaried jobs and institutional security sit on the other side of those negotiations.

“Just recognizing that there’s more going on behind the scenes,” she says. “You always get much better results and a much better relationship with the talent when you recognize that.”

For Charlotte, that recognition is not a soft ask. It is the precondition for work that means anything. “We’re not the ones in front of the camera,” she says. “We’re asking them to do something quite nerve-wracking, and they have to trust you for that.”

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