Jade Fiona, a Los Angeles-based fashion creator, model, and body inclusivity advocate, has built an audience of more than 1.4 million followers across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube by doing something deceptively simple: showing up in her body exactly as it is.

Her “mid-size outfits of the day [OOTDs]” went viral in 2022. She walked in Adore Me’s Cabaret-themed runway show during New York Fashion Week. Last December, she launched her first capsule collection, “Jadeyland,” with Lonely Ghost, which sold out quickly.

“I like to say I got into content creation by accident,” Jade says. “I started posting for the love of creating and because I was bored. It was a creative outlet for me.”

Long before brand partnerships and runway invitations, however, Jade was staging photo shoots in her backyard.

“Ever since elementary school, I’d do photo shoots after school and post them on Facebook for who knows who to see,” she says. In high school, she joined the multimedia team, “putting the yearbooks together and the videos for assemblies.”

After graduating, unsure of what path to pursue, she began posting outfit content for fun. At the time, she lived in a small town where few people experimented publicly with personal style. “I felt a little judgment,” she recalls. “But I powered through because I liked doing it.”

Her first brand gifting felt surreal. “It blew my mind. I was just doing this for fun.” She doubled down, not as a strategy, but because it felt natural.

“That’s why I say it happened authentically,” she explains. “People could sense that. I wasn’t trying to get a follow. I was sharing my confidence and style with people who needed that representation.”

Finding Her Lane in Mid-Size Fashion

Jade’s defining moment came in 2022. By then, she had roughly 20,000 followers on Instagram and a similar number on TikTok. But her content shifted when she decided to name what she was doing.

“One day I posted a video and said ‘mid-sized outfits,’” she says. “I woke up the next morning, and it went viral.”

The response surprised her. “I see myself as a normal girl with some hips,” she says. “But people were commenting, ‘This is amazing to see representation.’”

At the time, the body positivity boom had not fully reached the mid-size category. Jade’s approach was not framed as activism. It was practical and unapologetic. “I didn’t care if it was flattering or if someone thought I shouldn’t be wearing it. I wore it because I thought it was cute.”

As she leaned into “mid-sized OOTDs,” her following jumped into the hundreds of thousands within months. The growth was measurable, but the impact felt abstract. “With this job, it’s very intangible,” she says. “You can see the numbers, but it’s hard for it to feel real.”

That changed when strangers began approaching her in public.

“That’s when it felt real,” she says. “Someone recognized me and started crying, and then I started crying. I didn’t realize how much people needed the message I was sharing.”

Betting on Herself

Jade went full-time as a creator two and a half years ago, without a guaranteed income. At the time, she was waitressing while building her platforms.

Then an unexpected opportunity to move to Los Angeles appeared. “There was a listing for an LA apartment. A girl I followed needed someone that month. I just went for it and quit my job.”

The first few months were uncertain. “I was staying up at night wondering how I was going to pay rent,” she admits. “I had this super delusional mindset that this was going to work because I was giving myself no other option.”

That belief system became a theme in her career.

“You have to believe in yourself against all odds,” she says. “I had to tell myself, I’m the shit. Why wouldn’t this happen to me?”

Community Over Curation

In the early days, Jade did not speak in her videos.

“I was scared to talk. I didn’t know what to say.”

Over time, she began narrating her OOTDs and sharing more personal reflections. The shift transformed her relationship with her audience. “I feel so close with my following,” she says. “It genuinely feels like we’re besties.”

Her strategy centers less on perfection and more on emotional awareness. “I have a partner, but I remember all the Valentine’s Days I was single and how that felt,” she says. “So I posted, reminding people that being single on Valentine’s Day is a blessing. You need to be alone to figure out what you want.”

The response reaffirmed her approach. “People were in my DMs saying it’s nice how you’re considerate of other people’s situations even if you’re not in the same one.”

For Jade, strategy matters, but humanness matters more.

“We can overthink posting,” she says. “But at the end of the day, people just want real.”

Growth Tactics and Online Hate

Jade recounts how she reached 50,000 followers for the first time.

“Don’t let anyone go a day without seeing your face on their feed.”

After moving to LA, she posted once or twice daily. “Every single day I was filming, editing, posting.”

She also focused intensely on differentiation. “I’d ask myself, ‘What can I do that will make people stop on me over someone else?’”

That sometimes meant experimenting with unconventional edits. In one early example, she transformed a backyard photo into a distorted, magazine-style Y2K visual. “Everyone was like, ‘This is insane.’”

But visibility also brought criticism. “If a video went viral, the comment section could be terrible,” she says.

Instead of retreating, she reframed it. “Your comment is contributing to my success, and that’s the only revenge I need.”

What still bothers her is the potential impact on her audience. 

“I want my page to feel like a safe place. I don’t want people reading those comments and applying them to themselves.”

Inclusivity and Industry Realities

As a mid-size creator operating in fashion spaces, Jade has experienced both support and resistance.

“It’s been very accepting and very healing to meet like-minded women,” she says of the LA creator community.

But in more traditional fashion environments, the tone can shift. “You can feel a little less than,” she says. “But you got to where you are. You’re in the same room. You can’t let anyone make you feel like you don’t belong.”

On whether the fashion industry truly cares about size inclusivity, she is measured. “I can’t confidently say the fashion industry fully cares about inclusivity yet,” she says. “A lot of it is performative.”

Still, she believes creators are pushing progress.

“If creators weren’t continuously fighting for it, brands wouldn’t do it out of the goodness of their hearts,” she says. “It’s people like us who show up and fight for it that make everyone realize the same thing.”

From Creator to Designer

In December 2025, Jade extended her brand beyond content with the launch of “Jadeyland,” a capsule collection with Lonely Ghost.

“It taught me how much I love the designing aspect,” she says. “Seeing people wear it made me realize how much I understand clothes and fashion.”

Launch day was especially revealing. “Seeing it sell out so fast was insane,” she says. “People logged in a minute after, and their size was already sold out.”

For Jade, the validation was emotional. “This is my baby. I love it. It’s doing well. People love it.”

She hopes to launch her own size-inclusive clothing line, including “wide calf boots that are actually cute.”

In the short term, she is focused on scaling.

“It’s making it feel more tangible,” she says. “I’m looking at it as a full business. How can I scale up this year?”

Advice for the Next Generation

Jade’s guidance for aspiring creators reflects her own path.

“Show up,” she says. “Even if you’re not seeing numbers. The minute you give up, you’re letting somebody else win.”

Her second rule is differentiation. “No one wants to see two of the same person. They want to see you.”

And her third is conviction.

“Be insanely delusional,” she says. “Even if you don’t believe yourself, keep saying it until you do. There is nothing more powerful than someone who believes in themselves and is not going to quit.”